{"id":435471,"date":"2026-01-25T00:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435471\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:29:13","slug":"wa-growers-set-for-massive-27-million-tonne-grain-haul-breaking-previous-2022-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435471\/","title":{"rendered":"WA growers set for massive 27 million tonne grain haul, breaking previous 2022 record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Australia’s grain industry is looking at breaking the harvest record by 2 million tonnes after favourable seasonal conditions and a shift away from livestock production.<\/p>\n

The Grain Industry Association of WA (GIWA) is due to release its final report next month, but author Michael Lamond said the figures were expected to exceed 27 million tonnes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Michael Lamond says growers produced an exceptional volume of grain, far exceeding early forecasts. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Harvest is pretty well done and dusted in Western Australia now,” Mr Lamond said.<\/p>\n

“There will still be a trickle of grain coming in, but it is looking around 27.2 million tonnes.<\/p>\n

“That’s about 2 million more tonnes than the previous record set in 2022.”<\/p>\n

The author described the outcome as exceptional, noting it was not a result many farmers would have anticipated at the start of the grain-growing season.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Lamond says\u00a0some farmers are in “desperate need” of rain. (ABC Rural: Jo Prendergast)<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t a particularly good start further north, particularly in the Geraldton zone, where it was a very late start,” Mr Lamond said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The central areas are probably not in record territory, but each year there are areas that aren’t particularly good.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Mr Lamond noted that the higher volume of crops sown this season, particularly in areas with above-average rainfall, contributed to the increase in overall yields compared with 2022.<\/p>\n

“In 2022, there were about 8.96 million hectares sown in the state; in 2025, there are about 9.44 million hectares.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Michael Lamond says “central areas are probably not in record territory”. (Supplied: Stevi Filipowski, The Poppy Files)<\/p>\n

Reap what you sow<\/p>\n

Lake Grace farmer Royce Taylor has been working in the Great Southern for 37 years and said it was his second-largest production year on record.<\/p>\n

“The barley yields in the Lake Grace area this year were huge; we refer to it as the Barley Belt now,” Mr Taylor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Sheep going out of our systems, more hectares going in, varieties improving, not huge amounts of frost around, just a number of factors that contributed to a great year.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Royce Taylor describes the year as “amazing”. (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr Taylor believed the whole state was set to benefit from the huge crop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You’re looking around $10 billion plus going back in to the WA economy,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the exceptional season, Mr Taylor said the global market was “awash” with grain, putting downward pressure on prices.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Royce Taylor says a global oversupply of wheat may put downward pressure on prices. (ABC Midwest: Joanna Prendergast)<\/p>\n

Mollerin grower Cathy Cooke said some areas had missed out on the positive harvest. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“There is a pocket that has missed out, like Goodlands through the north of Kalannie down to east of Merredin,” Ms Cooke said.<\/p>\n

“It is the minority, but you still need to be mindful of them because its always tough when you see everyone have a great season and you haven’t had one.”Deliveries all but wrapped up\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the state’s south east, a record-breaking 4.05 million tonnes has been received by major grain storer and handler the CBH Group, in the Esperance port zone.<\/p>\n

The previous record of 3.7 million tonnes was well and truly surpassed in mid-December, which zone general manager Paul Channon said was no surprise.<\/p>\n

“We always planned our harvest receivals out to around the 4 million tonne mark,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Channon said on-farm grain storage in bags, the use of a train to empty out the site at Grass Patch, and plenty of in-season shipping all helped to bring in the record crop.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A CBH train at the Port of Albany in the Great Southern. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n

Albany general port zone manager Will Piercey said their district had received 5.35 million tonnes, which was 700,000 tonnes above the previous zone record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There were multiple days of over 150,000 tonnes of daily receivals, which is a massive effort from growers, contractors and staff,” Mr Piercey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Final crop figures are expected to be released on February 13. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A similar sentiment was shared in the Kwinana South zone, where general manager Irving Carey said out-loading had already begun.<\/p>\n

“We had 4.6 million come in; quality was great this year too,” Mr Carey said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Australia’s grain industry is looking at breaking the harvest record by 2 million tonnes after favourable seasonal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,63322,227407,32716,79960,47449,61833,44,227408,2185,45],"class_list":["post-435471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barley","tag-barley-belt","tag-canola","tag-cbh","tag-crops","tag-harvest","tag-news","tag-record-grain-harvest","tag-rural","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}