Silo investment pays off

While most of south east Australia was desperate for the inches of rain that fell on the weekend, for croppers in the NSW regions of Rand and Walbundrie it was the icing on the cake.

Last weekend the Bureau of Meteorology recorded rainfalls for most of Victoria with rainfall peaks for the Mallee and Wimmera up to 24mm, North 39mm, North East 44mm, Gippsland 56mm and Western District 21mm.

Mr Hehir said Rand received 15mm of rain between Saturday and Sunday, with no reports of crop damage.

It has been a tight expansion timetable for the Hehir's who decided a month before the Melbourne Cup, just weeks before opening, the good season would require an extra 25,000tonne of grain storage at the Rand facility.

"I thought the potential was certainly there this year because the crops looked good and my agronomist thought we could capitalise on it," Mr Hehir said.

"The first week we started we had 25mm of rain on day four of the earthworks, so I was thinking what are we doing?"

The site opened at the end of October and Mr Hehir said they were storing canola while still preparing the new bunker because of the early harvest.

"We only just got the auger going in time but that is how the grain industry rolls, everything is last minute," he said.

The Hehir's own the Rand and Walbundrie grain storage facilities and contract for GrainCorp at Rand and Brocklesby sites.

Walbundrie's capacity is 9,000tonne while Rand's capacity is 60,000tonne which has grown from 3,000 tonnes from when it was purchased in 1999. Ran in conjunction with Hehir Transport and fertiliser, Mr Hehir said the sustainable growth was due to strong support from local producers who were committed to the site surviving.

The Rand site is on track to receive 18,000 tonnes of canola this year, up on the 13,500 tonne last year and double 2010 figures.

The facility competes against major nearby sites including Oaklands, The Rock and Henty West, owned by GrainFlow and GrainCorp.

Mr Hehir said while the major grain player's overhaul their rail and grain handling networks, the family's fertiliser and transport company's complimented the business road transport to remain competitive with prices.

"The big players don't want to come to the little off-rail sites - they want everything on rail, whereas I've built off rail," he said.

"We own trucks and need to get to port to bring our fertiliser back so it all works together."

The spotlight has been on the viability of smaller grain storage facilities since GrainCorp announced the closure of 36 silos in Victoria and southern New South Wales earlier this year.