Driving your harvest machinery nearly 1400km from central Victoria to Toobeah to get a client's sorghum harvest squarely away is part of a day's work for Leigh Burke.
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Mr Burke who with his brother James founded BB Harvesting, said he hoped they could garner in the 2500ha sorghum crop before any heavy rains impacted the crops.
"We got a start today (April 3) for a couple of hours before a small shower but there was concern about the moisture," Mr Burke said.
"If the weather holds we could get into it this afternoon.
"There's probably about 14 harvesting days involved if the weather holds off, I know for some growers the rain is annoying but it''s good to get in with full moisture."
Mr Burke said they transported their harvest machinery on the back of trucks from Donald in Victoria to their client's property 5km from Toobeah.
"We brought three headers and two chaser bins with a crew of six," he said.
"This means our guys do a rotation so you get a day off to recover every seven days, we run a very strict fatigue management team."
Mr Burke had been contract spring harvesting in Queensland for eight years and said the current crop he was working on which was overseen by farm manager Rowan West looked to be in very good condition.
"Our client's crop now looks the best I have seen since I started in the winter of 2016," he said.
"This is our first summer harvest and it's great, I'd be happy to take on more work in Queensland when we finish here."
Mr West said he hoped heavy rains held back so the sorghum harvest could run smoothly.
And despite gathering clouds, Mr West said he was optimistic about their 2024 harvest.
"We have a bumper crop," he said.
"We have 2500ha planted and we just started harvesting the first paddock.
"We could get 40 millimetres to 60mm, we'll just have to see."
Got a harvesting news tip? Contact Alison Paterson on 0437 861 082.
