Harvest help has been an issue since the days of threshing crews. In the modern era, we’ve tried to compensate for a lack of people with ever larger equipment. It has been costly and not entirely successful.
No matter how big and new your iron, you still need bodies in the seats. In many cases, operations could benefit from more thought and planning on human resources.
There are 101 jobs associated with harvest that eat up time. There are grain samples to ship to prospective buyers, replacement parts to run for, maintenance and fuel for equipment that’s running long hours.
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Even people who can’t run combines and trucks can help with some of the other tasks. Don’t underestimate the value of this.
If your land is spread out, it’s time consuming to move combines, trucks, grain carts, augers and service vehicles from one field to the next. Anyone with a driver’s licence can help cut down on extra trips.
Grain trucks with automatic transmissions are in big demand. They enable less experienced drivers to haul grain.
But where do you find seasonal employees? Anyone with some skills and a work ethic is typically employed full time elsewhere.
Many producers recruit from relatives and friends. We often underestimate the thrill of the harvest experience for someone who lives and works in an urban setting.
Sometimes well-paid professionals will take part of their holiday time to be part of a modern harvest crew.
Retired and part-time farmers are often pressed into duty.
Sometimes we expect too many hours from of these individuals. Maybe they don’t want to work 16 hour days anymore. Maybe they just can’t. Take the hours they can provide and give them appropriate tasks.
High school kids after school can also be a big help, but you need reasonable expectations. They probably can’t work each evening until midnight and you’ll have to give them tasks that match their ability and experience.
At harvest time, patience can wear thin. You won’t keep employees long if you’re hard to work with.
It’s also amazing how cheap some farmer employers can be. Compared to what your equipment costs and the value of your time during harvest, what you pay seasonal employees is pretty minor.
How many combining hours do you lose from a lack of people? When the combine is running and maybe the grain cart is flying around the field and the truck is going back and forth to the bins, you can get a lot done.
But sometimes you see this same equipment sitting when it could be running. The other tasks associated with harvest are eating up time, plus people need to sleep.
You probably don’t have the workforce to desiccate your lentils, combine your peas and swath the canola all at the same time. Operations aren’t always spaced out the way you might hope.
Sometimes the crop rotation is designed to spread out the workload. Winter wheat and peas should facilitate an early start to combining. Canola, once it’s swathed, can usually lay for a long time without taking much hurt.
But inevitably, there’s a mammoth amount of work somewhere between the beginning of August and the middle of October. When the weather is good, it’s often a rush. Producers who plan every other part of their farming operation often fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to harvest help.
This can come back to bite you.
Kevin Hursh is an agricultural journalist, consultant and farmer. He can be reached by e-mail at kevin@hursh.ca.
