Week ending Sunday 17 November 2019 report

Harvest has ramped up, with last week’s receivals of over 770,000 tonnes surpassing the previous five week’s receivals combined and pushing the total for the 2019/20 harvest up to almost 1.5 million tonnes.

The bumper week saw grain received at 57 sites, seven of which took their first receivals. Thursday and Friday were our busiest days taking in over 130,000 tonnes of grain each.

Viterra Central region Operations Manager Jack Tansley says that the busy week, due to good weather conditions, saw some northern sites within the region start to receive more wheat as their barley harvest comes to an end.

“Barley continues to dominate deliveries at sites in the south of the region where harvest is just getting started, while the northern sites, who are further into harvest, are swinging from barley to wheat deliveries,” Jack says.

Viterra Western region Operations Manager Nick Pratt says that receivals on the lower Eyre Peninsula are picking up. Our Port Lincoln site had its busiest day so far this harvest on Sunday, and a new $6 million major upgrade was unveiled at the site last week.

“Last Tuesday, we hosted growers, and members of the District Council of Tumby Bay and the City of Port Lincoln Council, to demonstrate how the new infrastructure will create efficiencies to manage the movement of grain in the region,” Nick says.

“The significant investment and upgrade includes the conversion of three sheds to unload trucks, electrical upgrade works and construction of roadworks for a new class of high productivity vehicles.

“It’s been a significant project for the business which has utilised as many South Australian contractors as possible.”

Investments at Viterra’s upcountry sites have also formed an important part of the smooth transition to road transport.

“Our Cummins and Lock sites underwent roadwork upgrades for trucks to safely and efficiently outturn. We’ve built an additional 50,000 tonnes of storage at Cummins, and also installed extra equipment at Rudall, to efficiently load grain from silos to trucks.”

Read more about Port Lincoln’s $6 million upgrade.

Viterra Eastern region Operations Manager Jo Klitscher says that as more grain has been delivered in the region, new segregations have been opened based on quality and grower feedback.

“Across the region, the quality of barley is looking good and growers are really happy with what is being produced. We’ve opened additional malt segregations at some sites in response to this,” Jo says.

“Last week, Tailem Bend received a load of beans for the first time after the segregation was opened there this harvest.”

Harvest has just kicked off in western Victoria and our Dooen site received its first harvest load for 2019/20, when a load of barley was delivered on Tuesday from an early sown crop.

Did you know?

• Viterra contributed $4.2 billion (in gross state product) to the South Australian economy between 2010 and 2018.
• The art project on our Karoonda silos is an Australian first. They are not only painted with local Mallee characters; Whiskey the kelpie and Diamond the sheep, they also have a permanent projection display at night.

Disclaimer
* This data is subject to variation due to individual site operations and the timing of reports.
** The total 2019/20 data includes grain received into Viterra’s storage and handling network since 8 October 2019.
*** Eastern region data includes Inner Harbour and Victorian sites.