The harvest of winter grains continues across southern and central Queensland, with strong quality results recorded across all commodities.
In October, one of GrainCorp’s smallest sites, the Capella depot, broke its record for the largest day of receivals – more than 4000 tonnes.
And, according to GrainCorp’s senior corporate affairs advisor Sophie Harrison, the site then consistently received more than 4000t for seven consecutive days.
“This is a lot for one of our smaller sites,” she said.
“Across Queensland we’ve received more than half a million tonnes across our sites, more than 660,000 tonnes to be more exact, with quite a long way still to go in southern Queensland particularly.
“The quality across all commodities has been very strong – for chickpeas, they’re some of the best quality we’ve seen.”
GrainCorp also reports “good quality” wheat, barley and canola receivals.
According to the bulk handler’s first Harvest Update for 2025-26, growers across eastern Australia have delivered 583,900 tonnes of grain to GrainCorp sites – excluding ports – since October 1.
“Activity is expected to progress steadily over the coming week, supported by a favourable weather outlook,” it says.
“Further south in NSW, sites across the Central West region are expected to see their first deliveries this week, while in Victoria, the Northern Mallee has recorded its first barley receivals.
“However, limited rainfall in recent weeks continues to create a mixed picture.”
In the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) September crop report, farmers were forecast to harvest 62 million tonnes of winter grains across Australia.
This would have been the nation’s third largest harvest on record.
However, finishing rains have failed to fall in parts of Victoria and South Australia, where some farmers have now cut struggling crops for hay.
Meanwhile, West Australian farmers are harvesting one of the state’s biggest ever grain crops. It is forecast to reach 25.4 million tonnes and expected to be worth $7.8 billion.
The WA harvest will potentially account for 40 per cent of Australia’s total winter grain crop.
