Richmond sorghum grower calls for better support of northern grain industry

At Ophir and Illalong stations, 50 kilometres south west of Richmond, Jason Gobbert and his son Harry have trialled 15,000 acres of sorghum this season, but have discovered a set back when getting it to market.

When trucking the grain to Townsville Port, Mr Gobbert said there was no infrastructure to support grain exports.

"There isn't any rail facilities for grain exports at Townsville Port, they haven't needed it in the past," Mr Gobbert said.

"With the growing grain industry in North Queensland we really need some government infrastructure at the port to load boats.

"We need the likes of a GrainCorp to be taking the grain at the port so to speak, then they can stockpile and load 35-45,000 tonne boat and it would be more viable."

Mr Gobbert said the only option to get his grain to market was to box it.

"I have sent a bit of it into Townsville to a guy who is container boxing, but apparently they can't get many boxes so it works out expensive because they are trucking up boxes from Brisbane," he said.

"Once boxed, I sell it to a trader, then he sells it on to the exporter."

Mr Gobbert has been sending two trucks a day on the 1200 kilometre round trip to Townsville.

"We are running several trucks across a day," he said.

"I've been loading triples and trucks have to be broken up to unload them one at a time and it all just adds to the headaches and cost.

"We can send it in good volume loads but we really need facilities where we can just unload a triple into something."

Mr Gobbert said he had also noticed a significant price different between exporting out of Townsville compared to Brisbane.

"It is quite a substantial deduction to have grain go to Townsville Port over Brisbane Port. We are looking at $50-$60 a tonne difference.

"We are all in the same boat we are trying to make it work here in the north and there are costs involved in it, but it would be nice to get the same money for our grain.

"I realise we are in a position where we need to get the chicken and the egg working together a bit and there needs to be a demand of grain grown and working out a way to export it.

"I've heard they might be putting a feedlot in at Hughenden. Maybe that will give somewhere for our grain to go, so we wouldn't have to be looking for export options."

Next season Mr Gobbert would like to increase the size of his crop, but the logistics of getting it to market is hindering the change.

"Next year we were looking to expand to 50,000 acre crop, but I have no idea how we will go getting rid of that with the facilities available. It is going to be very difficult," he said.

"We had about 10,000 acres of successful crop this year, but I was hoping to do 50,000 acres next season."

Mr Gobbert moved from Dirranbandi to Richmond in November 2023 after purchasing Ophir and Illalong.

"We started to prepare a bit of land and we were sowing in December," he said.

"We bought this place and brought up some equipment and trialled a bit to see how it would go.

"The early crop was yielding three to four tonne to the hectare and was planted in the traditional time of year when you would get the rain.

"It has gone ok, we are quite happy with how it went.

"I wasn't well organised and we sowed some late and the late crop wasn't fruitful enough. It needed another rain to finish it off, but we didn't get it so it come to nothing.

"We also trialled 3000 acres of wheat. It went in on a profile of moisture but obviously the winter rainfall is pretty light-on, so we could be lucky and get a fall or two that might make it come to pass, or we might get nothing.

"I think sorghum is the best punt for us."

GrainCorp's most northern facility is located north of Clermont.

"Our network only stretches as far north as Mt McLaren," a GrainCorp spokesperson said.

When asked if GrainCorp had any interest in establishing infrastructure further north to support to the north west cropping industry, the spokesperson said "not at this stage".

The Queensland government and Townsville Port were also contacted for comment but didn't meet publication deadline.