Harvest time; the frantic hours, machinery breakdowns and long hot days invaribly culminate into a steady push towards a hopefully dry finish. With over half of our crops fed off to stock earlier in the year 2011 has been a small harvest for us. The headers and roadtrains have been rolling around the paddocks as usual however 10 days on and we are all but finished. Like many growers in this part of the world we have also hit green wheat. In a few days we will begin trundling gear over fields as we harvest patches of previously green wheat. There are also oat and chickpea crops to go and of course the search for another header. Our contracter is en-route back to Wagga and his own crops.

Yeilds and protein have been mixed this year and we’ve also had some weather damage. The dreaded black tip as ordained by the AWB silo saw a load downgraded to AGP1 a feed variety, while next door at the Graincorp silo the same wheat went APW a much better grade and a difference of over $45.00 a tonne. Hmm, it would be nice to have some consistency when it comes to grading. Regardless of what you deliver it all ends up in the same stack so there’s clearly a nice little profit happening for the on-seller. The picture below shows the AWB stack at Talwood. Although you can’t pick it up in this photograph there is a nice green tinge through it from the green wheat I mentioned earlier. The Talwood silo’s are about 50 kms from our place and I did quite a few runs to the sample stand this year to get wheat tested for moisture and then use the silo’s readings to calibrate our own protein and moisture meters.

Wheat prices are certainly ordinary this year. A large WA grower stated a couple of weeks back that growers needed to be receiving $300.00 a tonne for their product to make the growing of wheat viable. With ASW (Australian standard white) sitting at below $200.00 we’re a little off the mark.

So it’s back to the cattle for us tomorrow with more due to be delivered to feedlots and a load bound for the local saleyards at Moree as well. Thank heavens for the beeves!