Late sowings and a mild finish in the north, coupled with drier conditions and an earlier finish in the south, have squeezed together harvest times, disrupting the usual staggered north to south transition.

Some contractors still have machines working through the month-late harvest in Central Queensland as harvest cranks up in northern NSW and the first crops start coming off in the south.

Australian Grain Harvesters Association (AGHA) president, Peter Bradley, Benaraby, Central Queensland, said the situation had put a lot of pressure on contractors.

“Some of the south is coming in pretty quickly and unfortunately a lot of guys are tied up in northern NSW, so trying to get down to do the south is going to be very difficult,” he said.

But Mr Bradley said the harvesting industry had the capacity to get the job done if everybody pulled together and showed understanding.

He said grain harvesting machinery had doubled in capacity in the past 10 years and it was possible to take crops off much faster with fewer headers.

In many cases, the header’s capacity outstripped the farmer’s ability to shift the grain and store it.

In the North West, Wee Waa contract harvester, Mick Barclay, is one of many operators who has had to reshuffle his labour and equipment to meet commitments.

Mr Barclay has called on a fellow contractor to help finish a job in southern Queensland where he has four headers, two chaser bins and a team of overseas drivers bringing in a crop 10 days late.

That’s freed him up to dash down to “Haddon Rig” in the Macquarie Valley to make some headway into stripping 9600 hectares of winter crop before moving on to jobs around Cumnock and Yeoval.

“During the years the harvest window has been getting smaller, but this year is particularly abnormal,” he said.

To keep pace with rising costs, the harvesters’ association has increased the benchmark harvesting rate this year to $19.50 for the first tonne per acre ($48.20 a hectare), and an additional $19.50/t after that.

With many farmers buying up harvesting gear this year, some will not only put it to use harvesting their own crops, but help out neighbouring farmers as well.