Mates rally to finish frustrating harvest

The spirit of mateship is in full swing as farmers lend each other a hand to finish what has been a long and frustrating harvest.

Last year was the third wettest on record, with many farmers receiving their growing season rainfall in heavy shower events in November and December.

But when the going gets tough, the spirit of generosity and friendship comes out in full force and no one knows it better than our farmers.

Kulin farmer Brendon Savage recorded more than 80mm for December and finished harvest on December 30.

On New Years Eve, he took his header to help out his good friend Sean Scadding, who he has known since childhood, and lent his truck and tippers to another mate, Geoff Stade, in Katanning.

The three all attended Muresk together.

"When you finish your own harvest, it's amazing the weight that comes off your shoulders," Mr Savage said.

"I knew Sean still had over a quarter of his program to go … and the sooner you get that feeling off your shoulders, the better."

At the Scadding farm, more than 175mm of rain had been recorded since late October which pushed a month-long harvest into seven weeks.

"As soon as I saw Brendon's header drive around the corner, it was a huge relief," Sean said.

"If he hadn't of come to help, I'd be going until Friday and there is rain due later in the week."

With harvest in the bag, it means the Savage family, including four children, and the Scadding family, with three children, can take their annual two-week holiday on the coast.

For many, it's 'the sanity break' where they can forget about the farm and rest with family and friends.

While farmers are helping out mates, harvesting contractors, including Mark Hales, are still getting calls for help.

Mr Hales said jobs that would take two days were taking a week because of the weather, and moisture levels were the biggest problem.

"We are getting calls from farmers from Boyup Brook through to east of Katanning and Nyabing where they still can't get on their paddocks," Mr Hales said.

"It's rained every week of harvest which stops you for three to four days.

"We've only had a couple of decent harvesting days all year."

Dumbleyung farmer Shane Smith and his brothers have another two weeks of harvesting to go depending on the weather. They started the second week of November.

"We've had an unprecedented amount of rain this year and since the last week of October have had 260mm, which is what we would expect for the growing season," he said.

"The latest we've finished before is the first few days of January and I've never seen the bins as busy as this for this time of the year."

As of Monday morning, CBH had received more than 14 million tonnes.

Grain operations manager Max Johnson said they were looking at a 14.3 million tonne crop but it could go as high as 14.5 million tonnes.

A record 14.7 million tonnes was delivered in 2003-2004.

Albany zone manager Greg Thorton said on Monday they had received 2.4 million tonnes with an estimated 200,000 tonnes to come in.

Mr Thorton said there were individual farmers around Nyabing, Borden and Mindarabin who had a couple weeks of harvest left as well as growers in Pingrup and Frankland, with the extended harvest putting pressure on staffing resources.

The long harvest has also affected service providers including machinery dealerships, mechanics and contractors.

Weather Channel chief meteorologist Richard Whitaker said the outlook for the Great Southern and central Wheatbelt for January to March was for above average rainfall and thunderstorms.