Weather has been unsettled and made harvesting difficult so far this season. It’s proving to be a challenging time with no sign of improvements in markets and difficult conditions in the field.

Secondary growth in spring barley crops are set to make harvesting difficult and bring about quality issues in some cases.

In the harvest windows, tillage farmers may be under pressure to get work completed, but the most important thing to do in this busy time is to keep safe.

Working when you are tired can increase the likelihood of accidents, so take breaks, eat regularly and get proper sleep.

Ensure workers on the farm are doing the same and when rain arrives take the opportunity to catch up on jobs like machinery maintenance, checking on PTOs and fixing the small things that you noticed when out working with machinery.

Stock up on essentials and make sure you have them ready for when the weather turns fine again.

If you have a large area to get through, particularly this season when more spring crops than usual have been planted, then selling straw on the flat might be an option to take away some of the work load.

Also Read: Think safety as harvest approaches

Covid-19 has not gone away and farmers should be cleaning tractors between users or avoiding sharing machinery at all. Keep cleaning supplies and hand sanitiser in vehicles, as well as a pen for grain delivery dockets if they need to be signed.

Taking your time at jobs and an extra few seconds to think about what needs to be done can make a big difference and can prevent an accident.