TWO grain farmers have told
FarmOnline how using the right machinery helps them make better use of the opportunities in the new deregulated grains market, as they strive to get through the harvest more quickly.
Growers are now in the unique position of deciding to whom to sell their grain, and when.
But, apart from speeding the harvest, there's also even more emphasis on the need to deliver high quality grain samples, despite the quicker harvesting.
Grower Brenton Vanstone, for instance, runs a mixed cereals business at Wandearah East, 190 km north of Adelaide. He decided to forward sell his grain to the AWB just prior to harvest last year to capitalise on the high prices.
With a fleet of equipment including a Magnum 305, Magnum 220 and Maxxum 5130, Brenton crops 800ha of wheat, barley, oats, chickpeas and vetch, averaging 2.5t/ha.
“I didn’t have a chance to sit down and look at all the players in the market, so I stuck with the AWB, contracting to the pool when the estimated return was $344/tonne,” he said.
“At the time the cash price was around $280/tonne. But the cash price then went up to $320/tonne, so in retrospect, we should have waited.”
Like most growers, Brenton now plans to get serious about marketing following the harvest period. He factors grain selling into his farming program, and considers his marketing and sales options at seeding time.
"It wasn’t something I had to worry about before.
"But selling is now something I need to consider much earlier rather than waiting until just prior to harvest.
"It’s a new ball game."
Fellow grower Des Miguel, who runs a 7,000ha property at North Beacon, 360 km north east of Perth, took a different approach. Des averaged 2.2t/ha last harvest with his Case IH Axial-Flow 2388, well up on the previous season’s drought affected yields of 0.1t/ha.
Des paid his farm manager, Shane Sanders, to manage grain marketing and sales, in the end selling his harvest of 8,000 tonnes to three separate companies – the AWB, AgriCorp and Riverina.
“We started selling in October and finished in February. It was a real gamble deciding who to sell to and I just didn’t have the time on top of harvest for the research.
"We paid Shane $1/tonne for managing the job, so deregulation cost us $8,000.”
Case IH’s hay and harvest manager, Geoff Rendell, agrees about the lift importance of providing clean grain samples and of increasing harvesting capacity.
“The new market has made the market more competitive, which makes grain quality even more important,” he said.
“We’re yet to see what the new players in the market will offer in terms of standards or reward schemes for high quality grain. "However, it pays to be prepared to capitalise on any future schemes by ensuring you’re harvesting with the best possible equipment."
He says Case IH says its Axial-Flow combines are known for their clean grain samples, thanks to their single, in-line rotor design which results in gentle crop-on-crop threshing.
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