Farmers in the Warrumbungle local government area (LGA) – including Dunedoo – will soon have nowhere to store their grain, after GrainCorp closed 72 silo sites across NSW. Eight of these closed sites are situated in the Warrumbungle LGA and the decision is causing some trouble for farmers in the region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Only silos in Baradine will continue to receive grain, but only as “flex” sites, taking overflow from other Central West silos that are at capacity.
Silos at Neilrex, Binnaway, Mendooran, Ulamambri, Weetailba, Dunedoo, Gwabegar and Bugaldie have been shut down indefinitely.
The nearest site remaining open is located 40 kilometres from the Warrumbungle Shire’s western boundary in Gilgandra – a long drive for grain farmers looking to offload their crops.
The Gilgandra site is set to be upgraded to a primary export focused site, while a premier site situated in Liverpool Plains will also be upgraded to take extra deliveries from farmers affected by the closures.
Warrumbungle Shire Council general manager Steve Loane said the council had not been consulted by GrainCorp about the closures and the area manager finished up this month leaving his sites closed.
“My concern is that they probably won’t ever reopen, even privately,” Mr Loane said.
“We don’t know the asbestos status (of the silo sites) or their pesticide residue status – things council would like to know about.”
Warrumbungle LGA encompasses more than 1.2 million hectares of land, from Baradine and Coonabarabran in the north, to Coolah and Dunedoo in the south.
Almost 100,000 hectares of that is dedicated to dryland cereal cropping. Agriculture accounts for more than 775,000ha in total across the LGA.
At Coolah, Haynes Farm and Hardware agronomist Ed Blackburn, whose family grows cereal crops near Mendooran, said there wouldn’t be a silo site left open on the Golden Highway east of Gilgandra.
“The farm is only 14km from Mendooran so we’d take six or seven truckloads in one day, but now we have to go to Gilgandra and probably stay the night waiting in a queue, and still only get three truck loads turned around in a day,” he said.
Mendooran farmers Mark Yeo, “Glenshea” and Phil Lindeman, manager of “Yarragrin”, were also disappointed and anxious about their harvest delivery and marketing options as they contemplated freight distances at least 50km further to Gilgandra.
