Balco after less hectares in aftermath of January blaze

The fire caused millions of dollars of damage and gutted the company’s hay processing facility at Bowmans.

Balco chief executive officer Rob Lawson said they asked growers to reduce hectares by up to 45 per cent.

The reduction would amount to about 15,000 hectares being sown for Balco this season. 

“That doesn’t mean every grower reduces their area by 45pc,” he said. “Some growers we’ve already spoken have said it’s okay, they don’t need to do hay for a year, they’ll just come back into it the following year.”

Mr Lawson said good progress had been made at the fireground. 

“We’re just about to start the rebuild, so we’ve made good ground in a short period of time,” he said.

The company was confident it would be asking for normal hay plantings in the 2018 season.

Owen farmer and Balco supplier Lachlan Wood said he was likely to drop back the area sown to hay. He usually put in about 200ha of oats for export hay each year.

“It was a huge hay year last year,” he said. “As well as Balco looking for less hay, I've heard other exporters have a fair bit of carryover.

“While I think the area for hay will be cut back a little bit, I won’t cut it right back, because it is still an important part of my cropping rotation.”