Australia: Better quality expected as harvest continues

ABB Grain announced on November 17 that the drenching rains across South Australia earlier this provided a final boost of moisture for later planted crops that might yet deliver a real fillip for yields, while on the other – for those growers with early planted crops – it presented some problems in both appearance and quality of initial deliveries of grain.

While it’s very early days yet, the lion’s share of barley received by ABB to date has mainly been in feed varieties. We haven’t seen the quality issue of poor grain size, at the more than 40 ABB sites around South Australia that have begun receivals, as experienced in the last harvest. Most varieties have been classified Feed 1.

Even though it is mid-November, there are still a lot of green crops out there. It’s calculated that the South Australian harvest is running between two to three weeks behind its normal schedule.

The overall view from most growers (and ABB staff too) is ‘many thanks for the late rain but let’s now have a long spell of fine, dry weather so harvest can be completed without drama’.

Any further rain during harvest has the potential to cause shot or sprouting grain and a possible downgrading of quality.

When harvesting begins in earnest, it’s expected to be compressed into a relatively short timeframe.

ABB’s logistics staff have been working hard to prepare for what growers hope will be a larger harvest than last year, received over a very short harvesting period.

18 November, 2005