Dry conditions and frost have wreaked havoc for many southern Australian grain growers this year. But in northern states, the winter harvest has been likened to an Irish poem, blessed with soft rain, warm sunshine and healthy yields.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00We work all year for harvest so it doesn't get much better really.
00:16It's the best time of the year.
00:18I'd say better than Christmas.
00:23It's been what I consider a textbook season.
00:26This will be one of the biggest crops.
00:29Biggest winter crop.
00:32From the rich black soil of northern New South Wales,
00:36freshly harvested winter grain is pouring into Moree.
00:42It's a town with a population of 7,000 and seven receival sites.
00:49Everyone's really excited to have a decent harvest after the last few
00:54challenging years so this year's really come through the gates well.
01:00At CHS Broadbent the 2024 harvest is creating a logistical challenge
01:06for all the right reasons for grain merchant Jamie Fulton-Kennedy.
01:11The sheer volume that's coming through the sites at the moment is pretty insane.
01:15We've got a hell of a lot of grain in the area so it's good to see
01:18everyone up and at it and the town going as well as it is.
01:22Over the last few weeks which has been the gut slot of harvest and we're still going pretty hard,
01:28there would have been tens of thousands of tons come through Moree each day and
01:32don't want to think how many trucks but it'd be up near thousands.
01:34And what's the gut slot?
01:36The gut slot is when everyone is harvesting at the same time
01:40so the biggest part of harvest when everyone is really getting into it.
01:46The peak of harvest in the north has just passed but the grain keeps coming.
01:51It's been 40 degrees today and yet the trucks just keep rolling in with this site set to go
01:56through the night helping the region to harvest one of its largest crops yet.