THE small community of Pingrup was celebrating last week after one of its growers delivered WA's 15 millionth tonne of grain for the 2011/12 harvest.
The single truckload of wheat delivered to the Pingrup CBH bin saw the previous 2003/04 State record of 14,695,321mt smashed, helping WA to achieve its biggest registered crop in history.
But it's what the achievement meant for the small communities involved that was really important and local Pingrup farmers celebrated the milestone with an aerial photo of one of the impressive wheat stacks at the town's 226,800t receival facility.
So far this season the Pingrup site had welcomed about 156,380 tonnes of grain, only 200t short of its all time record.
And after suffering from a successive number of poor dry seasons, growers in the area couldn't be happier with the result.
"The Pingrup harvest has been put back on the map," local farmer and CBH director Trevor Badger said.
"The landmark delivery and good harvest has provided a boost for our small town's agricultural businesses and even more so for our farmers who have ridden out quite a few years with very little rain and very little enthusiasm.
"Hopefully the Pingrup crop will inject a bit of cash back into the pockets of local farmers which will contribute to a flow-on effect for the town and its small businesses.
"I also hope this year's big harvest will return a bit of energy to our farming sector after the last few tough years we've put up with."
Mr Badger said it was also important to acknowledge growers further east of Pingrup who had suffered a terrible time farming in 2010.
Growers farming in the wider Pingrup region who delivered to a number of other sites, also contributed about 283,613t to CBH's total count so far this season.
Those who delivered to Lake Grace's CBH receival point contributed 145,581t this season followed by Mindarabin which took 60,230t, Hollands Rock with 31,957t, Lake Cairlocup with 23,860t and Kuringup with 21,985t.
Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman was thrilled by the announcement of a 15mt harvest and extended his congratulations to Pingrup residents and the State's much wider grain-growing community.
He said the co-operative effort among producers and banking, consulting and broader agribusiness services to plant and grow the record breaking crop was a remarkable accomplishment.
Mr Redman said the record harvest demonstrated WA's capability as an important grain supplier and contributor to the food security of the region and recognised that farmers had overcome some enormous challenges to deliver this season's crop.
"Many growers are recovering from one of their driest seasons in 2010 and in recent months have endured a wet and protracted harvest," Mr Redman said.
"We should also recognise that despite this record harvest, for many farmers it will take several seasons to recover from the 2010 drought.
"Let's hope the coming season will bring those farmers some further relief."
Mr Redman also said the grains sector was a significant income earner for WA, contributing about five billion dollars every year.
But the CBH receivals aren't over yet.
CBH general manager of operations Colin Tutt said reaching the 15 million tonnes milestone was a fantastic achievement for everyone involved with the 2011/12 harvest, which had been incredibly challenging.
But the 2011/12 harvest was expected to continue in some areas into the final weeks of February, with about 75,000t still expected to be delivered.
Mr Tutt said the challenging times would continue over coming months as the task to move the big crop to port ramps up.
"The large freight task we are currently facing demonstrates the importance of efficient rail transport," he said.
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