WITH harvest a distant memory for farmers in southern NSW, much grain is still sitting in warehousing and on farm in storage and silo bags, remaining unsold.

It seems that this season, with the decline in prices, farmers have waited for harvest to complete before concentrating on marketing their grain.

Some growers seem willing to pay the warehouse fees, riding the wave of price fluctuation, and waiting for their target prices.  Many growers think this is a viable option if they are not in need of cash flow immediately.

We have seen some movement of grain recently; a few farmers have taken advantage of the price spikes for high protein wheat and sold grain that was warehoused. 

Several growers were able to offload their grain before they were due to start paying warehouse fees.  High protein wheat was selling for around $320/mt Port Kembla and $310/mt for Melbourne track in the last month.

An attractive alternative to delivering wheat into local depots is the delivery of lower grades into the Goulburn Valley to dairy farmers and direct into Melbourne.  Prices have been around $300/mt for ASW.

Selling of barley has been very quiet, with much barley still remaining on farm.  Barley port prices of late have not been anywhere near grower targets, some growers will look to feed barley to on farm stock, selling to local end users such as feedlots has as usual been popular, as we have seen better prices here.

There is little interest form farmers to sell canola, from what is left in warehousing and on farm.  Prices have not been all that attractive to growers and those who still have some canola, and they will hold off until prices rise.  Direct delivery in Footscray plant is one option for growers if they can organise their own freight.

With so much grain still in warehouse, growers need to be aware that they need to contract their grain in order to sell it; or sell it into the pools. 

Grain in warehouse cannot be sold to the cash price at the silo.  Once sold, the grain then has to be transferred from warehousing over to the contract/pools by either logging online and transferring it or completing a grain title transfer form, which can be downloaded from the internet. 

With last year’s grain still to sell, growers also have to start thinking about the 2009-10 season and decide what the best options are for them.  There are many specialty crops available for growers as well as conventional crops.  There are a few options for canola growers; genetically modified canola, Hi-Oleic canola, Juncea canola, just to name a few.