Top quality grain in early days
High-quality produce and a strong market is off-setting hit-and-miss yields as the region gains early insight into a western Victorian grains harvest.
Amid wildly varying expectations about what the season will ultimately reveal, harvest results are surprising many in the industry.
Commercial grain company Shannon Brothers, which operates sites at Beulah and Horsham, has reported outstanding quality grain from many growers across the region.
Horsham site manager Clayton Shannon said while the southern Mallee harvest was drawing to a close, the Wimmera was a mixed bag, with some growers in full swing and others still waiting for crops to fully ripen.
“It’s been a slow start in Horsham, which was to be expected considering the weather patterns we’ve had. But WKH TXDOLW\ VR IDU KDV EHHQ WHUUL¿F ´ he said.
“Around Horsham, north of the Western Highway from Jung through to Kalkee and across to Dimboola is a similar story to what’s been happening up north – varying yields, ranging anywhere from half a tonne to two and a half tonnes a hectare, but all high quality.
“The wheat is coming in with high protein levels in the Horsham area and the majority of barley is malting quality. The lentils yield appears low at this stage but it is also of extremely JRRG TXDOLW\ ´
Mr Shannon said the harvest was a long way from over, with grain from southern sections of the wheat belt likely to be still coming off paddocks in January.
“The test results have so far been fantastic, but whether that changes with the crops further south ripening ZH GRQ¶W NQRZ MXVW \HW ´ KH VDLG
“It might be that the best crops are still relatively green with a little way to go.
“At the moment it’s a real unknown. I’ve never seen the crops so good, yet so bad at the same time, depending on where they were.
“That late rain we had has clearly KHOSHG LQ ¿QLVKLQJ RII FURSV WKDW ZHUH hanging on, but it has been a mixed result on how much farmers are getting GHSHQGLQJ RQ JURXQG W\SH DQG UDLQ ´
Wheat, barley, canola and pulses make up the bulk of the Wimmera gains harvest. Climatic and geological circumstances across the vast cropSLQJ UHJLRQ YDU\ VLJQL¿FDQWO\ IURP district to district and sometimes farm to farm.
The Great Dividing Range is a primary demarcation line on north-south weather variability.