THE fortunes of grain growers since the deregulation of wheat exports has been in a state of flux, with volatility the only constant.

This was the consensus of industry leaders and growers who gathered at the Victorian Farmers Federation's annual grains conference in Horsham last week to discuss the industry post-deregulation.

The conference heard some growers had relished the opportunity to take wheat marketing into their own hands.

But delegates were also told the psychological impact on growers of the enormous changes caused by deregulation had been significant.

The grain market was now characterised by volatility and Australian sellers were more vulnerable to the peaks and troughs of the global grain trade.

The industry was also undergoing monumental changes to supply chains.

And it faced a major hurdle in maintaining Australia's profile as a supplier of hard, white, quality wheat, a reputation that AWB had established with growers' money.

One of several speakers on post-deregulation, Australian Bulk Alliance general manager Simon McNair, said the biggest change was how supply chains now worked across the country.

"This has been the biggest thing and there's now a plethora of options," he said.

But Mr McNair said the most challenging aspect of deregulation was maintaining the quality of the Australian harvest.

He said it was very hard to sum up the effects of deregulation on the market, and the impact of the global financial crisis on grain markets had been profound.

Grain broking company AgFarm managing director Bob McKay said the previous wheat single desk's national pool had "smoothed out" the market,.

But the market was now characterised by volatility, which was frustrating growers.

Mr McKay said the world market had always been volatile.

But the Australian market also had the compounding effect of production variability due to drought and domestic demand for on the east coast.

This made the deregulated market even more difficult for a relatively small player on the world market such as Australia.

Elders Toepfer Grain's Damian Bradford said growers were now storing more grain and had to be aware of how important it was to maintain stringent quality in on-farm storage.

"Growers need to understand that on-farm storage is not all beer and skittles," he said.