WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA — The 2015-16 grain harvest has drawn to a close with above average receivals of close to 13.6 million tonnes, CBH reported on Feb. 1.

David Capper, CBH Group general manager operations, said despite a string of adverse weather events it was a solid year for Western Australia (WA) grain production.

“This harvest we have seen frost, hail, fires, wind damage and extended dry periods,” Capper said.

“The fact that we saw an above average crop in a year where there was next to no rain in July and September is a credit to growers and their skill when it comes to farming practices and productivity.”

The 2015-16 harvest was a year of records, made possible through ongoing improvements to the network.

“We handled Australia’s largest ever canola shipment, we received more than 1.2 million tonnes at the Chadwick site and CBH and Watco moved record tonnes to port by rail in December,” Capper said. “All of these records have been possible because CBH has consistently invested in improving the efficiency of the CBH supply chain.”

“Many of these milestones wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago,” Capper said. “We continue to improve on the supply chain that CBH and WA grain growers have developed over CBH’s 83-year history to ensure growers have a world-class system that fulfills their needs.”

In addition to harvest closing, the cut off dates for optimizing wheat ended Jan. 29.

CBH said that by optimizing their wheat, Western Australian growers received additional value of approximately A$2.50 ($1.76) per tonne of wheat.

“In the last five years we’ve seen almost half of the wheat crop come through the Quality Optimization system,” Capper said. “It’s delivered around A$150 million in value to Western Australian since its introduction in 2011.This is a great practical example of value created in addition to the benefits on farm, ensuring growers can focus on getting their crop off and blend virtually, after it’s safely in storage.”