Large but late grain harvest

Report: Sally Dakis
The cooler than usual summer has pushed back the start of Tasmania's grain harvest, which despite the devastating October frost, looks like being one of the states bigger harvests.Headers usually start to harvest in the Christmas week, but it's now not due to start for another fortnight.Manager of Ruralco's stock feed, seed and grain division Frank de Bruyn says they are making some contingency plans for additional grain storage in the eventuality of a large crop."There are silo bags used across the country and what we have done is secure access to the silo bag equipment at fairly short notice if we have to, and we could probably utilise the bunker site at Powranna if we have to."A drop in global demand, combined with larger supplies of grain downgraded to feed quality after rain on mainland Australia has depressed prices."Looking at the current pricing on the mainland, we are seeing real reluctance from growers to actually sell their grain, and a lot of grain across the mainland has been warehoused, so they retain ownership of that.That's a fairly uncommon thing in Tasmania, but we are looking at options for that as well for growers."