“Ultimately, what we see when we look at on-farm storage is that in many cases, it is being used as surge, or additional capacity, to complement what is being delivered to the bulk network,” GrainCorp general manager for storage and logistics, Bruce Griffin, says.

“They store it for a couple of months before delivering into the bulk network later on.

“We received more than a million tonnes in deliveries post-harvest last year, mainly grain coming out of on-farm storage, so we are not missing out on grain stored on-farm.”

Mr Griffin says he believes many farmers are finding that using on-farm storage as a short-term option is the most effective way of using their own storage facilities.

“It makes sense for farmers to use it as additional capacity, but longer term we have found that growers have had varying experiences with the quality of stored grain.

“Market-wise, there is also the additional factor of limiting your exposure to the widest range of buyers.

“There are buyers who will purchase grain ex-farm and some are comfortable with that, but there are some that aren’t.

“When buyers are looking to put together large parcels of grain, they don’t necessarily have the confidence to execute those programs with ex-farm purchases.”

Along with this, Mr Griffin pointed to specific commodity quality requirements, such as the malt barley industry, which is encouraging farmers not to store malting grade barley in the popular silo bag storages.

He says GrainCorp is comfortable co-existing with on-farm storage.

“At the end of the day, it exists and people will form their own judgement, but we are confident our services in providing surety of grain hygiene and standards will mean we continue to be big players in grain storage.”