Harvest time for me gives me ultimate satisfaction. Knowing livestock are being fed, food can be prepared, employment opportunities and most importantly families remain doing what they love. Farming. Especially after the drought we have endured and still trying to fight through it.
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The stress and determination that takes place during the "silly season" is riveting and exciting. I'm lucky to be involved in an adventure of a lifetime.
The photographs that my mum and myself captured were hard to take. I tried getting some nitty gritty but night time sucks with lots of headlights! Being in the right spot (especially hard for me being in the chaser bin and I was busy 85 per cent of the time) and also close to being ran over several times. But to me it was worth it. I love photography.
Capturing moments of what doesn't look like hard work as we are "only driving machines" as some would say. Behind these machines are men and women who are tirelessly thinking, exhausted from working hours on end with little sleep, making sure their machines are greased, blown out, fuelled up and running perfectly, driving very closely to one another to ensure a smooth pickup from the headers, dodging trees and powerlines, making sure the moisture is perfect, making sure you don't get a block, cutting contours is an art to perform depending on the contours themselves (some are a bit hairy) harvesting hills so steep and uneven, safely unloading into trucks and into the silos, rolling tarps, making sure all the workers are fed and hydrated to keep going, paying wages, checking the weather apps in case rain is coming and communication among everyone is a big part of the whole operation.
It all starts with prepping the cultivation, spraying endlessly for weeds and pesticides/insecticides (not great with spraying), sowing around the clock and praying you didn't miss any rows and hoping it grows, spraying again over and over. It's not a nine to five job. Have we got enough moisture in the ground to sow sorghum? Are my calculations right for chemical to be sprayed on the crop? Endless questions we ask ourselves just to get where we are today. Harvest.
I feel humble knowing what harvest time means! Not just to myself but to us all. Even if I get yelled at by the header drivers for driving a wee bit too close, or the truckies for overloading just that little bit. Or arguing with the boss on several occasions. But at the end of the day we all have a beer and laugh about the bloke that got airborne over the contour, or went through the only wet spot in the paddock after he was told where it is. I'm sure we've all been there.
Appreciation to our farmers go a long way, even if you think you can't approach us, you can. We are thankful everyday as we live and breathe doing what we love. Farming.
Taylor Pankhurst is a farm worker from Warialda
