Harvest is officially underway in South Australia’s east, with Viterra’s Monarto South and Murray Bridge sites receiving their first loads on Friday followed by Loxton on Monday.
Monarto grower Tyson Paech kicked off the season’s deliveries for the fourth year running, delivering to Tailem Bend last year and Viterra’s Monarto South site the previous two years.
Delivering into Monarto South on behalf of the family business Inglebrae Holdings, Tyson says the first load of Compass barley was reaped from his better performing paddock, located on the property’s higher country.
“I’m very pleased that it made malt grade,” Tyson says.
“I’ve also started reaping peas – again from one of my better performing crops and the quality is looking good.
“This year, we’ll be harvesting barley, peas, lupins, canola and chickpeas.”
Viterra’s Murray Bridge site received its first load on Friday with a load of barley also delivered by Inglebrae Holdings followed by Viterra’s Loxton site on Monday taking a load of Scope barley delivered by Brown Well grower Digby McNeil from Smimac Farming Trust & Patterson AW & MA.
Viterra’s Eastern region Operations Manager, Jo Klitscher says while deliveries in the Murray Mallee will now start trickling in, the region is still a couple of weeks away from hitting full pace.
“Regardless of when it starts, we’re ready and well prepared to receive growers’ grain,” Jo says.
“We’re always working closely with growers to understand their needs and expectations and make sure we meet them.
“Our focus is to provide a valuable, efficient and cost effective supply chain to our grower customers and we will continue working to achieve this.”
Viterra Operations Manager Michael Hill says following the addition of barley dynamic binning this season several growers have already received upgrades in the Central and Western regions.
“We’re looking forward to seeing this replicated in the Eastern region in the coming weeks,” Michael says.
“We added barley dynamic binning following feedback from growers and the success of wheat dynamic binning last harvest which delivered around $6 million in value to growers.”
With harvest commencing, Viterra reminds growers to download the new Viterra app which Michael says has been developed to make it easier for growers to do business with Viterra.
“Growers can quickly access information about their preferred sites to help plan deliveries, transact in Ezigrain in a three-step process, and receive push notification in place of SMS alerts.”
The app allows growers to sign up for push notifications, which includes receiving details of delivered loads. To unsubscribe from SMS alerts, growers can enter their phone number in the app or call the Viterra Service Centre on 1800 018 205.
