Week ending Sunday 18 October 2020 report

Many more areas across South Australia began harvest and 14 Viterra sites welcomed their first receivals last week.

Harvest in our Western region officially kicked off with the first delivery being received into our Wudinna site.

The delivery of barley was received on Monday 12 October. Read more about our first harvest delivery on Eyre Peninsula for the 2020/21 season.

Since then our Arno Bay, Kimba, Port Lincoln, Lock, Port Neill, Rudall, Thevenard and Witera sites all had their first receivals.

Our Thevenard site received its first load on Thursday 15 October with a delivery of barley.

Mildy Chandler made the delivery with a load of Fathom barley from his Malleeview property in the Charra area.

“I’m pleased with the quality of our first load – it’s good to get BAR1. I’ve delivered another load since which was the same quality, and hope to get some more off today,” Mildy said on Friday.

“I’m really happy with the result, particularly given the challenges with rainfall this season.

“We’ll start harvesting again once this rain eases and are hopeful for a reasonable outcome overall.”

Viterra Western region Operations Manager Nick Pratt says the business works closely with growers to ensure sites are meeting the needs of growers.

“We’ll make sure that our opening hours are matched to when growers need to deliver, particularly with any changes in weather,” Nick says.

“Once we get a run of good weather and deliveries start to pick up pace at our sites in the upper Eyre Peninsula, we have the flexibility to extend opening hours to enable growers to get their crops off quickly.”

While the Eastern region is yet to record its first receival, deliveries to our Inner Harbour and Dooen sites are included within the Eastern region’s figures in this report. The 185 tonnes received reflects the first loads delivered to our Inner Harbour site.

Inner Harbour’s first load was delivered on Tuesday by Blake Siviour on behalf of grower Michael Balestrin from Robert Darling Farm in Mundoora.

Michael says he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of his delivery of lentils.

“We had a very dry June and July, and the later rain came a little too late for us as our lentils were already finished. Because of the dry growing conditions, we weren’t expecting the best quality so we were very happy that our lentils made the number 1 grade,” Michael says.

Viterra Adelaide region Operations Manager Neil Carr says our Inner Harbour site has made changes to its lentil offering for the 2020/21 harvest, following continuous review of our services.

“We’ve opened the local grower delivery line for all pulses at Inner Harbour to enable all growers to deliver directly into the site,” Neil says.

“We reopened our bunkers for receivals to increase our elevation capacity for these extra deliveries. The new Northern Connector will also create efficiencies for growers traveling to the site.”

Viterra has also introduced changes to our lentil grades to create additional value for growers for the 2020/21 harvest.

Changes include a new Viterra (V) grade for loads just outside of receival standards for the number 1 grade, some reduced tonnage deductions and modified contaminant tolerances for our cleaning grades and reduced fees.

Read more about the changes to our lentil grades.

Disclaimer
* This data is subject to variation due to individual site operations and the timing of reports.
** The total 2020/21 data includes grain received into Viterra’s storage and handling network since 3 October 2020.
*** Eastern region data includes Inner Harbour and Victorian sites.