That’s a wrap for us…harvest 2017 is in the books! It hasn’t been a long harvest but it’s certainly been an exhausting one this year so it’s very nice to be done before Christmas!

We had a bit of an eventful last day. After giving us no trouble all harvest, we had a tire give in on the grain cart rendering it too dangerous to operate. We had no time to stop and replace it as we were again racing to finish before the rain (the theme of harvest 2017 for us) so Matt began dumping directly into the bins. We also had a belt slipping on the combine which caused things to get very hot – thankfully, the boys found it in time and fixed it before it became a big drama or started a fire.

We were really keen to get finished and take the windrow pickup front down to Matt’s uncle so that he could get the last of his grain off before the weather system moved in. Naturally, this added to the stress of each little hold up but by mid afternoon, we were able to hand it over.

We spent the afternoon moving bins while Matt reaped a small paddock of standing barley for his grandfather, finishing up just in time for dinner.

Whilst moving around, we met several other farmers who were also finishing up.

I hadn’t made it home to cook so I ordered pizza for everyone and delivered it to the boys still harvesting before taking our crew’s to the shed to share over a well deserved cold drink.

We still have quite a bit to do this week getting everything packed up, delivering all of the grain to the silos (elevator) and sorting out our seed into appropriate bins for on-farm storage but, hopefully, we can knock off on Friday for a nice break over Christmas and New Year!

Whilst enjoying our dinner, we had a shower of rain so we were very grateful to have been finished and made it just in time as a big thunderstorm moved in 24 hours later and delivered some heavy rain.

After an incredibly dry start and a few of uncertainty at the start of the growing season, harvest 2017 certainly delivered a pleasant surprise in terms of yield and grain quality…a lovely way to finish off a busy year!!

Sending wishes of good health and happiness to all over the festive season. We look forward to reading updates from other HarvestHERs until we are back on the job next year!