NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
December 2010	25 January 2011
January 2011	28 February 2011
February 2011	1 April 2011

ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication provides estimates of stocks of wheat, barley, and selected other grains and pulses held by bulk grain handlers. These estimates are compiled from the Grain Handlers Stocks Survey (GHSS) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In addition to the monthly wheat estimates, quarterly estimates for barley and selected other grains and pulses are available in a separate datacube from the 'Downloads' tab of this publication.

For more detailed information on wheat use and stocks, see Wheat Use and Stocks, Australia (cat. no. 7307.0).

The ABS welcomes any comments from readers regarding the usefulness, range and quality of the statistics presented in this publication. Comments can be forwarded to: Environment and Agriculture Business Statistics Centre, Australian Bureau of Statistics, GPO Box 66, Hobart TAS 7001. Alternatively, email: agriculture.statistics@abs.gov.au, or phone (03) 6222 5939.


CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

Stocks of barley and selected other grains and pulses will not be published for the December 2010 quarter. Updated estimates of stocks of barley and selected other grains and pulses for the March 2011 quarter will appear in the March 2011 issue of this publication, after which no further updates will be published. The publication of monthly data on stocks of wheat held by bulk grain handlers will continue unchanged.


KEY POINTS

At the end of November 2010, Australia's bulk storage of wheat grain was estimated at 8.5 million tonnes, which was 145% more than the amount stored at the same time in October 2010. Of the total wheat grain stored by bulk grain handlers, milling grade accounted for 6.3 million tonnes, and feed grade accounted for 2.1 million tonnes. At the end of November 2010, Western Australia had the highest amount of wheat grain stored by bulk grain handlers, with 41.8% of the total Australian amount, followed by NSW with 31.8%. The 2010 wheat harvest period started in October and therefore, stocks of wheat grain stored are expected to start increasing over the coming months.

Stocks of wheat grain stored by bulk grain handlers, at month end
		WHEAT GRAIN STORED BY STATE						WHEAT GRAIN STORED BY GRADE(a)
		NSW(b)	Vic.(c)	Qld	SA	WA	Aust.	Milling	Feed
		'000 t	'000 t	'000 t	'000 t	'000 t	'000 t	'000 t	'000 t
2009-10(d)
	November	4 066	337	1 217	1 716	2 697	10 033	8 590	1 443
	December	4 171	1 557	1 135	3 788	7 137	17 788	15 360	2 428
	January	3 856	1 734	1 044	3 789	6 621	17 044	14 642	2 402
	February	3 345	1 624	1 006	3 644	5 945	15 564	13 424	2 140
	March	2 951	1 450	940	3 475	5 252	14 068	12 133	1 935
	April	2 667	1 301	821	3 178	4 803	12 770	11 043	1 727
	May	2 238	1 137	694	2 895	4 186	11 150	9 729	1 421
	June	1 997	986	608	2 566	3 727	9 884	8 642	1 242
	July	1 451	678	457	2 177	3 137	7 900	7 025	875
	August	1 351	603	397	1 723	2 613	6 687	5 938	749
	September(d)	972	487	320	1 393	1 943	5 115	4 530	585
2010-11(d)
	October	567	300	193	898	1 482	3 440	3 066	374
	November	2 687	218	1 105	906	3 534	8 450	6 316	2 134
(a) Wheat grain is graded by quality.
(b) Includes ACT.
(c) Includes Tas.
(d) The end of September is used to represent the closing stocks of wheat grain prior to the commencement of the next harvest period (October to September).

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.