Update January 7: GrainCorp has confirmed more of its Wimmera sites have received record amounts of Grain this harvest.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Corporate Affairs Manager Jess Simons said Carpolac recorded its second record receival year in a row with just over 36,000 tonnes of produce.
"Rainbow, Donald and Warracknabeal were the sites that received over 100,000 tonnes each more than last year," she said.
"We also expect sites at Natimuk, Jeparit, Westmere and Berrybank to hit record receivals in the coming weeks."
Harvests are now complete in New South Wales and Queensland. In these two states, GrainCorp received from farmers totals of 513,530KMT and 146,570KMT respectively.
January 1: Grain Producers Australia chairman Andrew Weidemann expects Wimmera farmers to open their wallets in their towns, after an "exceptionally good year".
It comes as GrainCorp has confirmed it has received record amounts of grain from surrounding growers at its Lillimur, Nhill, Rainbow and Warracknabeal sites.
Mr Weidemann, of Rupanyup, said the crop was "generally really good quality", and that farmers would benefit from an increase in pulse prices.
"We're looking at a reasonably buoyant period of cashflow for Wimmera farmers, so hopefully they will be able to repay some debts from the last drought period and buy some machinery," he said.
"(Spending) will flow into local communities and regional centres, that's for sure."
"Lentils are $150 a tonne more than they were this time last year, and that's a reflection of demand for Wimmera pulses due to poorer yield and quality from one of our main competitors, Canada.
"Pulses have been building up in farmers' for a few years, so there will be plenty of work for Wimmera packing houses in the next 12 months if they decide to sell those."
Mr Weidemann said Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Indonesia were the main overseas markets for Australian grain.
He said Wimmera grain growers would be watching rainfall in Australia's east coast closely in 2020.
"Generally speaking if it's dry in the north that weather tends to spread south, so hopefully the north gets plenty of rain," he said.
Horsham Landmark agronomist Matthew Beddison said it was hard to predict the amount of rain the Wimmera would receive in 2020 at this time of year.
"It's hard to follow, last year was meant to be a dry year and we actually got a decent amount," he said. "How much people worry about it at this stage is up to them. The key thing is summer spraying (for weeds) so if there is any rain as much moisture as possible stays in the soil."
GrainCorp's southern supply chain senior manager Craig Cochrane said growers gave its Nhill site a record 200,000 tonnes of product during harvest.
"The crop was amazing and it rained at the right times (in the Wimmera) across the year," he said.
"We spent money on our Nhill site in 2019 to increase its capacity by 50,000 tonnes. The growers in Nhill said they wanted to support us and they needed the storage increased because they were getting 10 tonnes of crops to the hectare."
GrainCorp is a publicly listed company that stores and maintains grain and canola, then delivers it to domestic and international customers who use it to produce flour, cooking oil and malt. It also supplies lower-grade grain to domestic feedlot customers.
Mr Cochrane said the company stored canola, wheat and barley in Victoria.
The grain from the Wimmera was being transported to northern New South Wales and Queensland feedlots.
"It's going to help out (cattle) farmers. There is a multi-million tonne grain shortage at the moment and Wimmera grain is going to help fill that," he said.
He said detailed data on the amount of grain each site received was due to be released on Friday.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice weekly from the Wimmera Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Wimmera, sign up below.