Later harvest now hitting top gear
Orginally published on Queensland Country Life November 17, 2022
Dalby based harvest contractor Wayne Bolam in full swing on the Western Downs with his newly bought New Holland Combine taking the lead. Picture: McIntosh and Son.
THE southern Queensland harvesting season got off to a slow start mainly due to the weather, but is now in full swing.
According to one contract harvester, Wayne Bolam, who is based in Dalby, the weather has definitely proved to be a challenge.
He said he started in central Queensland sending two harvesters there.
"Those boys are now just finishing up, and due to the season the quality of grain was an issue," he said.
"We did strike a week where we got held up after 70 millimetres of rain fell.”
"We got going in southern Queensland about a fortnight ago and thankfully my clients missed that last weather change that came through."
When Queensland Country Life caught up with Mr Bolam he was harvesting John Alexander's barley crop near Jandowae with his newly purchased New Holland combine harvester which has just clocked 100 rotor hours.
He said the barley was returning about 3.5 tonne to the hectare, which was disappointing as it had received too much rain.
To kick off his harvesting season Mr Bolam recently purchased two New Holland combine harvesters from McIntosh & Son at Dalby.
"It was time, I usually run three headers at once, and a couple of the older ones needed to be traded," he said.
Once the southern Queensland harvest wraps up, he will move to North Star then onto Warren, in New South Wales.
"The challenge down there will the road damage and closures, due to a wide-spread rain."