KANIVA district grain grower Jonathan Dyer never farmed during the single desk era but said he would be frustrated if a system was in place that restricted the current marketing options he had now.
“Where we are now, at Kaniva, we’re 310 kilometres from Adelaide, 310km from Portland and 500km from Melbourne so we have a lot of options available,” Mr Dyer said.
“It would be frustrating if we didn’t have the chance to choose which market we targeted according to the best fit at the time,” he said.
He said by using on-farm storage (OFS) and their own transport, the family business had the chance to create efficiencies.
“We can store the grain on-farm and get it to port cheaper than a bulk handler and that is all money in our pocket.”
Mr Dyer said he felt there was a lot more focus on on-farm storage in his area than there was a decade ago.
“I wasn’t farming then but I would say most people in the area have invested in storage in the past decade.
“It hasn’t just been for wheat, obviously, the pulse story has been huge over the past few years, but having the ability to market wheat means there is the total amount of grain produced to make the storage viable year in, year out.”
Mr Dyer said in his family farm business wheat was stored according to specifications and marketed during the year.
“This year was a classic year for storing grain on-farm, we’ve seen a really sharp rise in price and because we’ve had stored grain we’ve been able to sell at those higher prices.”
He said surplus grain has had to go into the bulk system and that it had been a missed opportunity.
“For logistical reasons we had to put some grain in the system and that meant we sold it earlier, when the right thing on paper was to store it on-farm.”
He said many farmers in the area had adapted with similar systems in the years following deregulation.
“I don’t know whether we are worse or better off, it is all I have known but certainly the world is a different place to ten years ago.
“Some of those functions of the single desk, such as marketing based on their own global information, were really important back then when many growers did not have access to information, but now you find out with the click of a button.”
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
