Bright outlook in the south despite rain

And most farmers are looking anxiously at weather maps while ruing the fact that the cream has gone out of the crops.

But there's still plenty of icing with CBH reporting receivals to date are the second highest on record.

More than 1.2 million tonnes of grain had been received by the end of October, falling just short of last year's 1.54mt for the same period.

The latest CBH zone receival figures as Farm Weekly went to press were: Geraldton 748,608 tonnes, Kwinana 411,173t, Albany 31,349t and Esperance 257,487t.

CBH also has revised downwards its expected total receivals figure for the season, dropping off 500,000t to an official estimate of 13mt.

The company's general manager of operations David Capper said recent frost and hail events caused the revision.

"We have seen from the recievals so far that there are some quality issues caused by the dry September and we will be working with growers to manage that," he said.

The big story is canola and although yields stretch between 1.1t/ha and 2.6t/ha, oil per cent is consistently in the high 40s.

And there are plenty of high-yielding barley (better than 6t/ha in places) and wheat (5-6t/ha) crops ready to be taken off when conditions dry out.

The overall story throughout the Esperance zone is one of frustration at the stop-start operations to take off the bumper crops.

Esperance zone manager Mick Daw said receivals ramped up towards the end of last week with most sites open.

"We have received fair amounts of barley and canola so far, but recent rain has seen little progress this week," he said.

"The forecast is for more rain over the next few days but it's hoped that harvest will get going again at full speed soon.

"Of the crop that has been received so far, most growers are very happy with both yield and quality."

Geraldton zone manager Duncan Gray said growers are about 25pc of the way through harvest.

"We have received about 80pc of the canola, 30pc lupins, 59pc barley and 20pc of the wheat," he said.

"At this stage the quality of canola has been fantastic, barley has been well down on what was initially expected and we have seen a broad spectrum of all wheat grades across all sites.

"The next three weeks are generally the busiest and if the weather permits we should see most of the northern part of the zone wrapped up."

The Kwinana zone has so far received good quality canola with high oil content, while barley quality is down and wheat has been a mixed bag of all grades.

Assistant Kwinana zone manager Allan Walker said rain over the weekend slowed deliveries early in the week but tonnages were starting to increase.

"We will start to see more sites open with longer hours this week," he said.

"We would also like to ask growers and transporters to support us again this year in keeping our sites safe by obeying all the site rules when delivering your grain."

The start to harvest has been interrupted in the Albany zone by continuing poor weather.

CBH Albany zone manager Greg Thornton said initial deliveries of canola had shown good quality.

"We have been getting high oil content in recent deliveries," he said.

"The early deliveries of barley and oats are indicating the tight finish to the season is having an effect on the quality with higher levels of screenings and some test weight issues.

"While there is more rain forecast, we are hopeful that harvest will ramp up later in the week."