Grain storage experts around Australia will be enlisted in Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supported research into the potential of early harvesting of high moisture grain to improve yield and quality.

It’s estimated successful high moisture harvesting of wheat and barley could lift yields by five to 10 per cent as well as reducing the level of downgrading because of weather damage.

A similar process in sorghum should minimises lodging and speed up the harvest of late planted crops; in pulses like chickpeas and mungbeans, it should reduces losses from shedding (shattering??) and improve grain quality. 

Project leader, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QDPI&F) senior development officer Peter Hughes, said research on the early harvest of cereals started in Queensland and Western Australia in the 1980s,

“That work and more recent studies have all demonstrated the value of early harvesting, with measured losses – which didn’t include the impact of inclement weather – varying from 0.5 to 2.5 per cent of yield per day of delay, Mr Hughes said.

“Trials in chickpea at Wagga Wagga and Tamworth between 1997 and 1999 identified a decline in yield of 0.7 to 0.9 per cent for every day harvest was delayed.  

“Data from Western Australian showed the lowest daily losses, but the prolonged harvest in that state potentially produces greater losses overall.” 

Mr Hughes said the new, three year project would draw on the national network of departmental grain storage specialists that collaborated on earlier GRDC projects looking to improve the use of phosphine and the potential of high flow aeration to improve the quality of stored grain.

Much of the previous research on early harvesting relied on hot air driers to manage the high moisture grain, and adoption of the technology had been limited mostly by the high capital and variable costs involved.

There were also logistical problems associated with running hot air driers at harvest time.

“Relatively low cost aeration technology provides a more cost effective option to match harvest capacity,” Mr Hughes said.

“It allows safe storage of moist grain that can be dried at a later time, using either hot air driers or high flow rate aeration drying.

“After reviewing international and Australian research on early harvesting, we plan a national workshop on the subject, followed by the organization of regional reference groups. 

“We’ll be looking for wider industry participation in this project, because we need to win market acceptance of early harvested grain. To do that we will have to ensure it meets the specific quality requirements of different users.”