BULK handler GrainCorp is gearing up for the expected monster harvest by hiring a harvest casual workforce three times larger than last year.
GrainCorp operations manager Nigel Lotz said the company expected to have at least 3100 casuals on this compared to 1000 in the drought hit 2019-20 harvest.
This figure could go even higher if crops continue to develop well over the next six weeks.
And there is no danger of the jobs not being filled, with GrainCorp reporting a whopping 5500 applicants for the job.
Mr Lotz said the big increases in workforce would be in northern and central NSW in particular, where farmers are within striking distance of a monster harvest, made all the more sweet after the two years of disappointment previously.
While the gains will not be as spectacular in the north of the state it is still expected to be markedly more grain that the past two seasons.
Mr Lotz said a larger harvest was also expected in Queensland, even though it will only be an average crop in the historical context.
In Victoria, he said the forecast was for another good year, following on from a generally successful 2019-20 apart from in the far north-west of the state.
He said the company was looking forward to the challenge of handling some serious volumes of grain after two disappointing harvests.
"We've made some big capital investments in new equipment and new set-ups at our sites so we're really excited about the next few months."
"Among the new equipment we've 20 new elevators, new grain 'dogs' to move the product.
"We've had a full step up in terms of our grain handling capacity since the last time we had a year this big, in 2016-17 so we expect to be able to handle the grain efficiently even if it is a really big year."