Thumbnail scketch of the 2009 harvest

This photo taken early in September shows the crop still growing and showing all the signs of a bumper harvest

Time to start some serious planning for this years harvest.

Preparations started in earnest about then, here two new field bins are being unloaded.

The header, minus the 40 foot front, was still in the shed but had undergone the pre-season checks.

Not that it needed much attention... as you can see by the interior its brand new.

The work all starts out in the paddocks of course, here the header is busy reaping the wheat, a lot slower than last year because the crop is so much heavier, we should all have that as a problem.

Emptying the headers box into the chaser bin which is pulled by the "small John Deere tractor"

A view from the header as the chaser bin pulls alongside

This diminutive 5 foot nothing who is my grand-daughter and Vicki and Rex's niece has spent the harvest (about 6 weeks) driving the tractor chaser bin combination, not bad for a "City Girl" who lives in Perth WA.

Here Jenna is filling the back trailer of the road train while Uncle Rex looks on.

Jenna was also allowed a couple of laps in the header, an honor indeed.

From the paddock to market... because of the very good season they have built two new "Grain Bunkers" at Wudinna, these enormous bunkers each hold 100,000 tons of grain and are covered by a heavy duty plastic tarpaulin which is welded on site into one continuous cover as the grain is added.

Here Rex is emptying the front trailer into a mobile pit, from there a conveyor takes it to the top of the pile where gravity shapes the pile as it fills

Here the rear trailer has been pulled onto the frame and is in the process of emptying its load too.

The system is slightly different when the grain is going into the permanent Silo's, it is dumped into a pit from where the conveyors take it to the chosen Silo, it is railed from there to the shipping terminal at Port Lincoln where grain ships take it to its final destination... either in Australia or Overseas.

Grain is not normally received at the Silo's on Sunday so the trucks line up for an early start on Monday morning, there was 4 rows and about 10 trucks per row so they kick off with anything up to 1000 tons when work begins.

While all this has been going on "The Big JD" has been sleeping away the hot weather in the shed, but be assured it will earn its keep hauling the huge machinery that will plant next years crop so it all averages out.

That's a very brief and maybe not 100% accurate (Rex is out working hard so I couldn't double check the figures) but I'll claim poetic license for any that aren't quite true.