The combined intake across harvest totalled more than 13-million tonnes compared with 12.6-million tonnes of receivals in 2016-17.
Southern Mallee area manager Phil Duynhoven said economic benefits from the ‘bumper season’ were likely to flow onto communities across western Victoria.
“On the back of a good season there’s a lot more money that flows through the community, especially for the small country towns,” he said.
“Additionally, a good season generally results in more employment across the board.
“The last couple of years we’ve had additional staff on at all country sites, which has been a real positive for the community and helps to bring new people into the community.”
Mr Duynhoven said timely rain and improved farm practices were contributing to consecutively strong harvests.
“We had fairly decent rain throughout the growing season last year and generally had the right weather conditions all the way through,” he said.
“The farm practices are also continually improving, and we seem to be getting more yield with less rain year on year.”
Wimmera area manager Gerard Bibby said practices such as direct drilling, where seed was placed in the ground without any prior soil cultivation in the stubble of the previous crop, was one method contributing to high grain receivals.
“Direct drilling is probably one of the biggest changes in the area. This helps to retain all the moisture in the ground,” he said.
“High receivals in places like Natimuk could be attributed to rain just before harvest, which for the whole Wimmera, would have brought millions of dollars into the region – that last rain just topped us off perfectly.”
Mr Bibby said crops such as canola, wheat and barley performed particularly well in the Wimmera.
“Canola was well and truly above what was forecast in the Wimmera,” he said.
“It varied around the Wimmera. Quite often you heard the six-tonne-per-hectare mark for wheat and barley and around three tonnes for canola.”
Operations general manager Nigel Lotz said the company’s focus had now turned toward exporting grain throughout the world.
“The harvest not only reinvigorated many of our sites, it has also led to a strong export program out of our ports at Carrington and Port Kembla, in NSW, and Geelong and Portland, in Victoria,” he said.
Mr Lotz said four ports were booked out until September 2021.
The entire January 27, 2021 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
The entire January 27, 2021 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!
