SHEPHERD Grain celebrates its fifth birthday today with the announcement of a major expansion to its Burrington Road container packing and seed processing plant.

With the 2025 harvest rapidly approaching, and expected to be well above average, the plant upgrades are timely – and tie in perfectly with today’s birthday bash.

Company director John Shepherd said upgrades focus strongly on receival, storage and export capacity for chickpeas and faba beans as well as halving unloading times for deliveries.

“The improvements we’re undertaking at the moment will lower our unloading times to 35 minutes per road-train,” Mr Shepherd said.

“This means, in effect, we’ll halve unloading times. The trucks will be in and out a lot quicker, which is what all farmers and transport companies are looking for.”

(from left) Mungbean business development manager Billy Adams, Shepherd Grain director, John Shepherd, export authorised officer Sherri Magor and logistics officer Maddie Watts are preparing for an above-average harvest.

Upgrades include a new 35-metre bucket elevator, fully commissioned and ready to go, alongside a new drive-over system capable of receiving all trailer combinations at a rate of 300 tonnes per hour.

To support the increased intake, Shepherd Grain has expanded its upright inbound storage.

“With the addition of two new 700-tonne silos, we will now have a daily capacity of 1000 tonnes,” Mr Shepherd said.

“Our drive-over system can unload more than 300 tonnes per hour.

“The seed goes into our bucket elevator and on to four 700-tonne silos. We’ll empty those at a rate of 1000 tonnes per day.

“We’ve also got new container loading systems, meaning we can pack more containers at a quicker rate,” he said.

“All the bulk grain produce that comes to us, chiefly chickpeas, faba beans and sorghum, will be packed quicker before going by road transport to Brisbane.”

Today, the ever-evolving business blows out five candles.

“We’ll celebrate with a few quiet beers and a barbecue,” Mr Shepherd smiled.

“We’ve continued to expand during that time and have added a seed-breeding program and cotton-seed treating equipment to our operations,” he said.

“Profits from Shepherd Grain are re-invested in a breeding program called Seed Excellence. We’ve got lots of different varieties of wheat and barley coming through, and we’re also working on pulses to improve yields for farmers.

“We also have our processing side of the business, where we treat one-third of Australia’s cotton-seed used for planting before it goes to farmers – that keeps us very busy for a couple of months of the year,” he said.

Shepherd Grain’s new reach-stacker forklift in action.

Mr Shepherd said the stars are quickly aligning towards a near-record harvest.

“This year, the harvest for us will focus on pulses. We’re expecting a big harvest – one of the biggest ones we’ve seen, I think. Last year was big, and this year will be just as big,” he said.

“The weather has been ideal, with perfect growing conditions, and rain has fallen at the right time.”

Shepherd Grain will operate peak harvest receival hours from 7am to 7pm for sampling and tare off. The company has confirmed it will purchase faba beans and chickpeas this harvest, while also offering contract packing services to other grain exporters.

When current upgrades are completed, the site will boast 4800 tonnes of storage for commodities, with 3300 tonnes connected to the high-capacity harvest unloading system.

On the export side, Shepherd Grain has installed two new container loading inverters, supported by a reach stacker.

The additional infrastructure is designed to streamline container packing and strengthen export logistics.

The site has also invested in in-house dockage cleaning, allowing out-of-spec faba beans and chickpeas to be processed back into specification.

Harvest inbound logistics manager, Maddie Watts, said the improvements will deliver significant efficiency gains for growers.

“We can get a road train weighbridge to weighbridge in around 35 to 40 minutes, excluding wait times,” Ms Watts said.