Two very different scenarios are playing out for grain growers taking a “cautious” approach to seeding crops across WA, with bone-dry conditions at farms near Geraldton and waterlogging in the Great Southern.
Cally Dupe
Regional drivers may have noticed some unusually shiny, clean grain wagons rolling through the countryside in recent weeks.
Seeding has started early and in earnest in WA, with farmers rolling tractors out of the shed to put in sheep feed and limit-testing plot trials after recent rain.
WA grain farmers will head to China for the annual CBH Group study tour this year, marking the first time the annual expedition has travelled to the Asian superpower nation since 2016.
Martin and Dustin Michael have created their own paddock-to-pint beer — called Farmers Ale — which has been made almost entirely from products grown on their farm at Bolgart.
Cally Dupe and Simon Collins
Kulin farmers were the shining light of a disappointing cropping year in 2023-24, with new figures showing the region achieved the highest total grain production in Australia.
CBH chair Simon Stead is standing behind the co-operative’s Path to 2033 strategy in the face of seesawing harvest grain receival totals varying up to 50 per cent year-on-year.
Wagin sheep king Clayton South will now serve as a key conduit grain growers after being named chair of CBH Group’s Growers’ Advisory Council.
WA can now lay claim to the richest and biggest clearing sale in Australian history after more than 600 items were sold for a whopping $31 million across a “truly amazing” six days in the eastern Wheatbelt.
Australia’s biggest grains research organisation has unveiled a $47 million weed management initiative designed to help tackle an invasive issue costing farmers more than $4 billion a year
WA grains legend Duncan Young says he was shocked and surprised to be named Australia’s best cropping farmer after being recognised for his on-farm excellence and industry leadership.
The Premier has touted the Great Southern as the big winners of Labor’s plan to bring WA’s freight rail network into State control, flagging financial benefits for the agriculture sector and community safety.
Melissa Sheil
An Albany-based entomologist and an Esperance-raised research agronomist leading work exploring long coleoptile wheat have received major awards at the State’s biggest grains conference.
WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti claims she has had “no response” from Arc Infrastructure about plans to buy back the State’s rail network, one month after flagging ambitious plans to do so.
Cadoux grain grower Russell Inman has edged out stiff competition from two former directors and a female farming trailblazer to be voted in as the newest director on the CBH Group board.
Bigger grain trains will be able to be loaded more quickly at CBH Group’s Broomehill receival site after multi-million-dollar “game changing” upgrades were finally finished after two years of work.
WA grain growers have defied challenging conditions to help CBH Group receive its third-biggest crop on record, with 20.3 million tonnes of grain tipped into its bins from Geraldton to Esperance.
The boss of farming co-operative CBH Group has hit out at Arc Infrastructure over its sub par-investment in the State’s rail freight network, saying WA would be better served with a government-run system.
A bid to buy back WA’s regional rail network has been labelled ‘hollow’ by the Nationals, as the Liberal party predicted taxpayers could be forced to fork out a staggering amount.
Jessica Page
An ongoing campaign to eradicate skeleton weed is ramping up, with surveillance efforts expanding into parts of WA’s Wheatbelt where the crop pest has yet to be recorded.
Adam Poulsen
The biggest agriculture machinery auction in WA history will take place next month as the Saudi owners of the State’s largest farm aggregation seek to offload their vast inventory.
Grain king John Nicoletti says he would rather farm than go fishing or play bowls in his “old” age after being revealed as a major buyer of WA’s biggest farm aggregation.
WA’s largest farm aggregation — estimated to be worth about $200 million — has been returned to local hands after more than five years of foreign ownership.
Adam Poulsen, Cally Dupe & Olivia Ford
Labor is planning to reverse the ‘reckless’ privatisation of WA’s freight rail network two decades ago, but is refusing to reveal how much it is willing to pay for it.
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