WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA — Grain deliveries in Western Australia (WA) have broken through 14 million tonnes, well ahead of the estimated of 13-13.5 million tonnes expected for the 2011-12 season, CBH said on Jan. 9.

CBH said 14.001 million tonnes had been received with another several hundred thousand tonnes still expected to come in.

Receivals by Zone to date are as follows:

•           Geraldton, 3,500,000 tonnes;             

•           Kwinana, 6,536,000 tonnes;

•           Albany, 2,406,000 tonnes; and

•           Esperance, 1,458,000 tonnes.

Total receivals for the state, 14,001,000 tonnes

The 2003-04 harvest still holds the CBH record for highest grain intake for WA with 14.7 million tonnes delivered.

The Geraldton Zone has reached 3.5 million tonne of grain deliveries with only minimal grain left to come in.

Geraldton Zone Manager Duncan Gray said nearly all sites are closed and any growers still delivering grain are asked to contact their local Area Managers so services can continue to be offered as close to home sites as possible. The quality optimization cut off date for the zone is this Jan. 13, Gray said.

Most sites in the Kwinana Zone are full and many of the small sites are closing this week, leaving just the primary sites operating on single shifts.

Kwinana Zone Manager Brett Jeffrey said there is possibly another couple of thousand tonnes still to come so the zone will be pushing almost 7 million tonnes once completed. The quality optimization cut off date for the zone is Jan. 20, Jeffrey said.

CBH Albany Zone Manager Greg Thornton said to date 2.4 million tonnes have been received with a couple of hundred thousand tonnes still to come.

Thornton said it was expected harvest in the Albany Zone would continue throughout January.

“Sites are starting to fill and some services will close in the coming weeks, so we encourage growers to contact the site to confirm services prior to delivery,” he said. Quality optimization cut off date for the zone is Jan. 27.

Very little has changed in the Esperance Zone in the last week as wet weather continues to hamper efforts to get the last 50,000-100,000 tonnes in the bin.

Esperance Zone Manager Mick Daw said there are a number of stacks starting to close around the Zone and some sites will also be closing over the next week or so as well. Quality optimization cuts off on Jan. 13.