Harvest set for record

Cool, wet conditions have led to a huge harvest in the Mid West, with several collection points breaking all-time records.

A third emergency storage location had to be opened in Mingenew to handle the overflow of grain, with the old iron ore pad across from the town post office being converted to handle the massive quantity of incoming lupins.

Mingenew has the distinction of being one of the biggest inland grain receival points in the southern hemisphere.

CBH Geraldton zone manager Duncan Gray said this was Mingenew’s biggest year on record, with the final expected total of 580,000- 590,000 tonnes set to smash the 2011-12 record of 525,000 tonnes.

“There’s approximately 60,000 (tonnes) of lupin in the emergency storage,” he said.

“We’ve put them all downtown to try and reduce the dust levels from the grain for those living in town.”

Mr Gray said the season was far bigger than had been expected, with plenty of rain and a cool, wet finish to the season leading to record harvests across the region.

Carnamah, Moonyoonooka and Morawa also broke their receival records .

“There’s a considerable number of sites that have smashed their all-time receivals,” he said.

“Price is not that good right now, but hopefully volume will make up for it.”