As I am writing this, it is raining. Perhaps raining is an understatement. Lighting strikes, thunder roars, gutters overflow – with hopefully some water making it to our water tanks.
Last weekend, we finished harvest. A six week effort of long days which become a bit of a blur. Sixteen to twenty hour days are common, because when harvest is ready – its ready. And that’s not just us – everyone works like that out here at this time of year. Header drivers, chaser bins drivers and truck drivers.
As a header driver, the long hours manifest themselves in funny ways. Days are hard on the machines. In the afternoon, high temperatures make the oils thinner, slowing down your hydraulic systems. You constantly watch the temperature of all of the different sub systems in the machine, looking for any sign of overheating or breakdown. A bad bearing on a hot summer afternoon could easily start a fire. Often turning at the end of the row into the wind brings a hint of smoke into the cab, causing you to scan the mirrors for any hint of actual smoke. But thankfully, there is none… No doubt some dust settled on the exhaust manifold of a 500HP engine that has been running flat out for the last 8 hours, creating just that hint of a burning smell.
Night time allows you to relax a bit on the fire front, but makes you feel like time is running at a different rate. You almost feel like you are driving in ‘fast forward’. The spinning reel on the front of the header looks like it is running away from you. The ground speed appears far faster than the display indicates. And creaks and groans from the header appear out of nowhere as the crop gets harder to thresh in the coolness of night. You get home late and get up early the next morning to clean and fuel the thirsty machines.
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But none of this is a complaint – this is what we do and we are good at it. Not only that, the equipment we use is really very clever in what it does and there is a significant challenge in getting it setup ‘just right’ to produce the cleanest and most efficient grain sample.
And I must say that Bre and Dan did an excellent job sharing the chaser bin work between themselves. Bre drove during the day and Dan was on the night shift. Dan also did some header driving as well. In fact Bre and Dan did the last day of wheat by themselves – a real treat for me! Jen helped out where she could, but full time work off farm has its own responsibilities. Her main gift was patience towards our late arrivals and early departures from home. So in the end, it all worked well and it is a special thing to have your family work with you.
So, harvest was OK for us. Our barley was excellent, our canola above average and the wheat average or just below. Overall – we were very blessed. Now, if only we knew what the grain markets were doing!!
But all of that is history. Now, it is raining and our thoughts move to the next crop. Without rain, dry land farming is just playing in the dust.
However, I think all of us would have appreciated a few more days of rest before a big rain – but as usual the weather doesn’t ever ask us what we would like. Rain at this time of year means work. No doubt that summer fallow spraying will now begin before Christmas. An important aspect of cropping for us is keeping the paddock free of weeds over summer. Weeds suck moisture and nutrients out of the soil before our winter crops get a chance to use them. And we just can’t let that happen!
And so, our preparations for the 2015 crop start only a short time after the harvest of the 2014 crop.
Ahh yes….The great circle of life!
Cheers
NeilK