Tips To Make The Most Out Of Your #Harvest15

1 | FarmAtHand.com Harvest Guide

HARVEST GUIDE 2015

TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF

YOUR #HARVEST15


People say that farmers work by the acres, not by the hours. Ain’t that the

truth. As you are gearing up for harvest, we have been getting the tools you

need up and running as well.

Weather is definitely one of the biggest challenges this year. Instead of look-

ing at multiple different apps, you can now access the weather condition

from Farm At Hand app. More importantly, you can keep track of your com-

modity status faster from our brand new dashboard, too.

When you are ready to do the paperwork, easily export all of your field ac-

tivities with a touch of a button. Make things easier for the agronomist and

market consultants you work with.

If you hire extra farm help for harvest, you can show them where your fields are with mapping instead of texting directions or giving them hand-drawn

maps.

All those hours driving the combine? You can now manage other operation-

al items with Farm At hand app. Download it from the App Store or Google

Play now and enter your harvest activities on the go.

With this, we wish you a safe harvest season!

Kim and Himanshu,

Co-Founders, Farm At Hand


Pro Tips For Pre-Harvest

And Desiccation

With the cool, dry start to the season, many fields have crops at a number of stages, and with thinner stands, weeds have sometimes maintained a foothold. With some late season moisture, new life is given to the late emergers. They’ll still be going strong when the crop is ready to cut. This could mean all sorts of cutterbar, pickup reel, feeder chain, and sieve headaches.

A fast and efficient harvest is one of our enduring dreams. Few things are worse than downtime when harvesting weather is

good, and the forecast is bad. For this reason, one of the

smartest decisions a grower could make is to consider a late-

season harvest-aid application.

By: Tom Wolf, Agrimetrix Research and Training


A desiccant or pre-harvest herbicide application can help avoid those problems. The challenge is to get the spray into, or through, a mature crop canopy. Here are some pointers to do it right.

1. Evaluate where the spray needs to go to do its job. If you’re con-sidering a pre-harvest herbicide, are you looking to control dande-lions or buckwheat near the bottom of the canopy, or are you trying to get thistles or quackgrass near the top? If you’re mostly trying to accelerate drydown with a contact product, where in the canopy are the green stems and leaves that you need to contact?

2. Take a bird’s eye view of your canopy. That’s how the spray sees it. If you can clearly see your target, the spray application is pretty straightforward because most droplets will make their way there easily. But if the target is obscured by a lot of foliage, or if it’s verti-cal, the job is much more challenging and will require some combi-nation of more water, slower speeds, and finer sprays.

3. Plan ahead and make sure you give yourself enough time, be-cause to do the job right you’ll be using more water and driving a bit slower. Focus on productivity tools like a fast, efficient fill to make up the lost time.

4. Reglone is a product that should ideally be applied in the eve-ning, allowing it to be taken up and slightly translocated within the leaf before morning sunlight activates it and prevents any further movement. If you’re not careful, the tighter window of evening-on-ly applications could get you behind. And of course, be aware of the signs of inversions and know when to quit.

“A good job with a pre-harvest herbicide or a harvest-aid can save many swathing and combining heaaches, and can help dry down during less than ideal conditions.”


5. Test your water and make sure your water doesn’t have turbidity (suspended clay or other organic matter), for glyphosate and Re-glone, and hardness, for glyphosate. Aluminum Sulphate can help get rid of turbidity, but it takes time. Ammonium sulphate (AMS) and other water conditioners can remove antagonizing hard water ions like magnesium and calcium. This is especially important as we increase water volumes with glyphosate to get better coverage. The higher water volumes give a concentration advantage to the hardness minerals.

6. To get more spray deeper into the canopy, slow down, add water, and point nozzles backward. The backward orientation helps offset the forward travel speed, giving the droplets a slower net velocity that facilitates their downward movement.

7. To hit plant parts that you can’t see, one of the main tools is finer sprays. The smaller droplets have an easier time changing direction to get around obstacles like leaves, and they are also much more likely to be intercepted by petioles and stems, and to stick to them. This can be both an advantage and disadvantage – for example, the awns in bearded cereals are notoriously effective at capturing the smallest droplets before they can do any good further down. If you don’t want to use a different nozzle to get a finer spray, simply increase the spray pressure of your low-drift nozzle to 80, 90, even 100 psi. This will create enough fine droplets. But don’t think that the higher pressure pushes the spray into the canopy. Only air-assist can do that.

8. If you’re using contact products like Heat (Eragon in the east), or tank-mixing these products with glyphosate, similar guidelines as with Reglone should be followed. Generous amounts of water, and slightly finer sprays than glyphosate alone, will maximize its per-formance. Make sure that spray drift control remains a priority.

A good job with a pre-harvest herbicide or a harvest-aid can save many swathing and combining headaches, and can help dry down during less than ideal conditions. It’s another reason why the sprayer may be the most important implement on the farm.


Minimizing Combine

Losses During Harvest

Q: How can farmers get the maximum efficiency out of their combines? Derek Rude (DR): There are various sources of combine losses. The losses could originate at the header, grain leaks, threshing, separating, or cleaning systems. To get maximum efficiency out of your combine, the first step is to quantify the losses and determine if they are acceptable to your operation. Instead of relying only on visual check, quantify your loss in bu/ac for the information to be most meaningful. If the losses are not acceptable the next step is to determine where the majority of the loss is coming from. We use a plastic dishpan on the end of a broomstick and take a sample of the separator and cleaning shoe loss separately to visually see where the majority of the loss is coming from. To inspect for unthreshed loss disengage the chopper and inspect the condition of the straw to see if there are any unthreshed seeds in the head or pod.

Research over many years has shown that as feed rate increases loss in-

Every farmer wants to get the most out of their hard work

and one way to do that is to

minimize combine losses dur-

ing harvest. We connected

with Derek Rude A.Sc.T. from

PAMI (Prairie Agricultural Ma-

chinery Institute) and asked him some pointers to manage

combine losses.


creases. This information can be shown on a loss curve. Typically the feed rate (x axis) versus loss (y axis) curve will be quite flat until the capacity of the threshing, separating, or cleaning systems is exceeded. Once the capacity of one of these combine systems has been exceeded the loss in-creases exponentially as feed rate increases. The farmer should be target-ing maximum productivity at their acceptable loss level which means that the combine should be operated at a feed rate where the loss curve is just starting to increase in slope. Determining loss at a range of speeds will al-low the farmer to find this point of maximum productivity at a reasonably low loss level.

Q: How to minimize losses in dry harvest conditions? (DR): Typically you are looking at a dry canola situation when the crop material is very dry and brittle such that the crop material breaks down as soon as it enters the combine. What typically happens then is much of the crop material breaks up into small pieces and ends up being in-troduced to the cleaning system. To reduce the amount of crop material being introduced to the cleaning system you can install separator and or concave blanks to block off some of the concave and separator area. An-other suggestion is to reduce the rotor or cylinder speed and or increase the concave clearance to reduce the threshing and separating aggressive-ness which can also reduce the amount of crop material being introduced at the cleaning system.

Q: What is an acceptable amount of loss? (DR): It is not reasonable to expect that a combine is going to be 100 percent efficient in all crops and conditions. Typically around 1 to 2 per-cent loss should be achievable regardless of the type of combine you have or the crop condition you are in. There are some exceptions in challeng-ing crop conditions where the loss can only be reduced to 3 to 4 percent at reasonable ground speeds; it’s not very common but it can occur. Measure your losses in bu/ac, for example if a typical yield is 50 bu/ac for canola then a 1 bu/ac loss (2 percent of 50 bu) is reasonable.

Q: What is the best way to measure harvest losses? (DR): The best way to measure losses is to drop a loss pan then clean the catch sample. The loss can be quatified by weight, by volume, or by seed count. The area of the drop pan will factor into the math required to determine the loss amount per acre. It is recommended to disengage the chopper and spreaders when doing loss checks to ensure the entire header width of crop material and loss is being collected in the loss pan.


Sampling Your

Grain Bin 101

At SGS we see and hear about it everyday, the sample results sent for inspection do not match the truck unload sample at your elevator or terminal. This causes major problems not only for the unload point, but for the producer as well. The single most important factor when grad-ing a sample is having an accurate sample. When submitting product for grade determination, you want to ensure you have a representative sample.

You completed another

long and tiring harvest,

the fruits of your labour

are in the bin. Do you

have a sample in hand,

ready to send away,

take to the local elevator

of choice or submit it to

an inspection agency?

Does the sample in hand

accurately represent

what is in your bin?

By: SGI Agricultural Services Canada


To ensure you are taking a representative sample you first must estimate how many loads the bin will hold. You want to make sure that you will have sufficient samples for you to “shop” your product to local facilities or brokers as we as have backup samples to keep on farm. We would rec-ommend 10kg as most facilities ideally like to look at a 1kg sample, thus giving you 10 samples. When you’re ready to unload your grain truck or cart into the bin, have a hand scoop to sample the grain to be unloaded that will a couple hundred grams at a time.

Once product is flowing, insert your hand scoop into the flow upside down, then turn it right side up once fully under the flow until the scoop fills. Start this process at one side of the grain flow. Repeat this proce-dure, working your way to the opposite side of the grain flow then back again and repeat. This method will ensure a good representation for any small seeds and/or chaff that will gravitate to the middle and sides of the grain flow.

Next is determining the amount of grain it will take to fill that bin. If it is going to take five 1 hour of loading time and your sample scoop is 200 grams you know you will need to take a sample approximately every 1 minute and 10 seconds to get to the ideal 10kg total for that bin. Sam-pling times will vary with each bin and with different amounts of grain to be unloaded each time.

There, now you have a representative sample for that bin. However, before you take a sample for grade, there is one last important step to follow. We mentioned small seeds and chaff, not only can this affect the dockage, it has the potential to influence the grade as well. When sam-pling into a sampling pail the chaff tends to gravitate to the sides of the container, while the small seeds will work their way to the bottom. If you send in a sample from the top of the pail to one facility and one from the bottom of the pail to a different facility it’s very possible to receive two entirely different results. To prevent this from occurring make sure to divide or split your sample down into 2 pails. To do this put two pails directly beside each other so half of the flow from your original pail goes into each pail on the ground until you have the desired amount (1kg), a divider is recommended. You are now prepared to send/take your sam-ple for a grade, and you can be confident you should receive consistent results each time you deliver a truck load from that bin.


Harvest Marketing

Decision

There are a few things that growers should keep in mind when making any marketing decision, but can be especially helpful in the fall. First, if prompt movement is needed one should carefully weigh the funda-mental outlook for each crop on your farm rather than simply selling what has the highest price or where a buyer calls with a ‘harvest special’. While there are broader trends that affect grain markets overall, each crop also has its own underlying dynamics that drive the price outlook.

Growers should be more heavily selling those crops that have relatively less upside potential, or perhaps greater downside risk. In some cases

Harvest is just around the corner and farmers’ attention will un-

derstandably be primarily focused on bringing the crop in. Hope-

fully most growers developed a well thought out marketing plan

months ago for their 2015 production, reducing the need to make snap selling decisions off the combine. But changing circum-

stances and unexpected outcomes for yield or quality can force

adjustments to even the most well researched plan.

By: Jonathon Driedger, FarmLink Marketing Solutions


we may see a price peak near harvest as pent up overseas demand drives a very aggressive export program in the fall and early winter. Other crops have greater potential into the later winter and spring in response to tightening supplies. Some markets may simply be over or underval-ued based on the longer term fundamental outlook. A solid understand-ing of the market structure for each crop on your farm is critical when making optimal selling decisions and maximizing revenue.

Farmers also need to be aware of changing buyer habits for some crops. It’s becoming increasingly common for buyers to bid on a specific sample rather than according to standard Canadian Grain Commis-sion grades. This has particularly been the case for durum, lentils, malt barley and wheat. The variable quality of last year’s crop and shrinking supplies had an important influence in pulling the trend along, but we can expect this pattern to continue going forward as end users focus on those specific traits that fit their individual needs.

The move towards more sample-specific buying creates opportunities for growers, as it avoids having your grain discounted for factors that have little effect on its value to the end user. But it’s critical that good representative samples are taken all the way down to the individual bin level. This avoids the costly mistake of having shipments showing up as a different quality than what the buyer was anticipating, which inevita-bly results loads being heavily discounted or outright rejected.

Finally, one shouldn’t underestimate the value in stepping outside of your normal marketing comfort zone. For example, exploring what other buyers have to offer beyond the few you might usually do business with can open new opportunities. Cash brokers can add a great deal of value, particularly in some markets, as they deal with a much wider range of buyers than most farmers do on their own, and have a good understand-ing of who might be caught short and willing to pay a premium on any given day. Futures and options can also add tremendous value in man-aging risk and increasing marketing flexibility without having to make a commitment on physical grain. Expanding the marketing tool box only increases opportunities for farmers.

Harvest is an exciting time of year. May good marketing decisions help you achieve the best price possible for the crop you worked so hard at to successfully bring in.

Meet Your FarmerEvery week we ask a farmer to share his or her story with out community. We post it on our blog and share

it on social media using #MeetYourFarmer. Read them on our blog, or take a sneak peek here.


“I honestly didn’t think I would become a farmer. In high school I thought I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, but after doing some stu-dent teacher work in college I gave that up. So I switched to a general business degree not knowing what I would do. Over the course of a few summers work-ing on the farm, a desire built up in me to want to farm and do nothing else.” – Sean Harkness on why he farms.

“Weather, weather, weather.”

– Lance Walker on the biggest challenge this growing season.

“Agriculture is fun, it’s exciting, it’s challenging, there’s always something new to learn, and there are countless opportunities in this industry that is go-ing to be around for years to come. Don’t be scared to consider a career in Agricul-ture, even if you don’t come from a farming background. Wherever your passion lies, technology, grain mar-keting, agronomy, sales, research and development, insurance, and so on, this industry has it all!”

– Ginelle Pidwerbesky on opportunity in Ag.

“The sense of accomplishment and the feeling of both working for yourself and still helping provide the basic essentials for everyone.”

– Scott Perkin on what he loves about farming.

“It’s kind of silly but my phone has be-come one of my most important tools on the farm. I’m using it constantly to keep in touch with my ag retailers and grain buyers as well as my family. ”

– John Kowalchuk on his most important piece of equipment.

“If you’re going to work for an a^#hole you might as well work for yourself. I also love how plants adapt and grow. They’re amazing little creatures...Offi-cially [this year] is my third crop. Unof-ficially [I’ve been farming for] 29 years, 6 months and 15 days.”

– Jeff Bennett on being a farmer.


“I’d have to say it’s the smell of freshly worked dirt it’s full of life to grow the seeds we plant!”

– Mike Beckie on his favourite moment in the field.

“To be honest...I don’t know why I became a farmer. It’s just what I have always dreamed about doing, ever since I was a little boy and I was carpet farming.”

– Dustin Krahn on why he became a farmer.

“The biggest challenge is to unite farmers together so that we could make changes to a lot of the other issues in farming because one farm can’t make all changes alone.”

– Laramie Eyben on our biggest challenge in Agriculture.


“The most important piece of equipment is the sprayer. It it seems we never get out of it from burnoff, in-crop spraying, fungicide, insects, and pre-harvest/des-iccation.”

– Doug Erickson on his most important piece of equipment.

“Mother Nature – she’s the one who re-ally runs the show! We can be the best managers in the world but at the end of the day there are some things that can be hard to mitigate, like weathering the storms that have been rolling through or the frost that totally took out our first seeded canola and we had to replant all of our canola.”

– Roberta Galbraith on her biggest lesson learned this year.

“Suppers in the field during harvest. The chance to catch up with family that gets neglected during the long hours of har-vest is a nice treat.”

– Ian Boxall on his favourite moment in the field.


“The biggest challenge in Ag is will we be allowed to grow the food that will be required to feed the world with all the misinformation about agriculture from the special interest groups.” – Micheal Wipf on the biggest challenge in Agriculture right now.

“I remember following and riding around with my dad for hours and hours everyday in the spring and fall. I’d sit patiently, waiting for him to ask, “you wanna steer”. I think those were every farm kid’s favourite three words grow-ing up and from then on I knew that I wanted to be a farmer.”

– Justin Korte on how he got into farming.

“The first pass with the combine and the first bit of grain piling into your hopper.” – Landon Olsen on his favourite moment in the fields.


“Farming is not for everyone, and it takes a special type of person and family to succeed in a business where we buy our inputs at retail and sell our goods at wholesale. A good farmer cares about the land [he uses] and always wants to leave it better than it was handed to him, always improving and making things better.”

– Louis Morton on what he’d like the general population to know about farming.

“I was the first Farm At Hand user!”

– Rick Keller farms with his daughter, Kim Keller aka Farm At Hand co-founder.

“My mom is a farmer. She’s a cook. She’s a bookkeeper. She’s a cleaner. She’s our therapist. She’s our metereologist. She’s our CNN news correspondent. She’s sometimes our banker ;) She’s always our mom. She is involved in every single part of our farming operation. She, by far, has the hardest job out of all of us on the farm.” – Kim Keller on farm mom/farm wife.



Used Farm Equipment:

Pricing Insight & Help

From Ritchie Bros

Every day you spend on the farm is spent consumed by the numbers that can make or break your operation: commodity prices, quotas, millime-ters of rain, and more. You can speculate on soybean prices come har-vest time, the number of pairs you’ll have come spring, and how many hours you’ll need to get all the work done. You’ve got these numbers figured out. What you might need help with is deciding when to sell or buy farm equipment.

Spring thaw in the used equipment marketIn the last two weeks of March 2015, on the heels of a first quarter that saw lagging new farm equipment sales in Canada, Ritchie Bros. held our first unreserved public farm equipment auctions of 2015, selling every-thing from 4WD tractors to a cattle squeeze.

Even though the last frost in Alberta was two weeks away, it appeared that the used farm equipment market was heating up. Since then we’ve conducted more than 60 agriculture auctions across Canada, including complete farm sales and dealer inventory reductions. In general, pricing has remained steady year-over-year, and optimism has replaced con-cern.

Where to find used farm equipment pricing insight & informationWith over 300 auctions each year and an inventory of thousands of farm equipment items, Ritchie Bros. is also knee deep in the numbers. Those numbers can give you the insight you need when deciding whether to

Based on equipment selling prices for January to June 2015 at Ritchie Bros’ unreserved auctions in Canada, here are the trends in the used farm equipment market.

By: Simon Wallan, Ritchie Bros.


add that second combine, purchase a more powerful tractor or sell the old silage truck. We also publish equipment selling prices on our web-site, rbauction.com, to help you estimate how much your equipment is worth.

2015 used farm equipment market trendsBased on equipment selling prices for Jan-June 2015 at our unreserved auctions in Canada, here are the trends we’ve noticed in the used farm equipment market:

Grain handling equipment – strong demand.This 2014 Unverferth 9250 1000± bushel grain cart sold for $39,000 at an unreserved auction in Stewart Valley, SK in March 2015. Sales for grain handling equipment have been strong. If you are planning to buy newer grain handling equipment, there is a good selection of quality equipment available. If you are plan-

ning to sell newer grain handling equipment, conditions are favourable.

Tractors – strong demandThis 2013 Case IH Magnum 340 row crop MFWD tractor sold for $170,000 at an unreserved auction in Carberry, MB in June 2015.

Based on what we’ve seen for the first two quarters, demand for late-model tractors is increasing, with many farmers opting to invest in good-quality used equipment over

new—particularly with the US exchange rate driving up the price of new equipment in Canada. Case IH and John Deere MFWD tractors are par-ticularly popular, with 1,400+ being sold in the first half of the year at our Canadian auctions.


Livestock equipment – strong demand. This 2010 Supreme 700T feed wagon sold for $37,500 at an unreserved auction in Lethbridge, AB in March 2015. Livestock equipment demand has been strong so far in 2015, thanks in part to higher beef prices and optimistic producers.

Combines – holding steady. This 2014 John Deere S690 combine sold for $365,000 at an unreserved auction in Melville, SK in April 2015.We’ve sold hundreds of John Deere, Case IH, New Holland and other top name combines at our Canadian auctions so far in 2015. Demand and pricing for used combines has been holding steady relative to 2014.

Swathers – weaker demand This 2014 Case IH WD 1903 Series II 40’ swather sold for $115,000 at an unreserved public auction in Swift Current, SK in March 2015.

If you want to add a swather to your operation, consider buying now. Demand for swathers seems to have weakened, which may be due to many farmers having purchased new

swathers in the last five years, as more farmers than ever before are op-erating newer equipment fleets.

2015 outlook for the used farm equipment marketAs long as growing conditions are favourable and livestock prices stay high, demand for used farm equipment should remain strong through 2015.


Talking About Insects

With Scott Meers

Q: Which bugs are causing the most damage this growing season?Scott Meers (SM): Early on we had lots of concerns with flea beetles eating canola, and we had quite a bit of damage with cutworms. Those have now run their course. Southern Alberta has lots of cabbage seedpod weevil this year, and we can expect lygus bugs later on – and grasshop-pers, too.

Q: When does it make sense to start thinking about spraying given the current weather condition?SM: It is a rather difficult decision because your crops are under severe drought stress. Crops that are under stress from drought are less able to compensate for insect feeding. We don’t want to put more money into the crops, but the thresholds are fairly straightforward and will help you determine if it makes sense economically to spray.

Q: What would you advise farmers who are considering to spray?SM: Consider the insects numbers; Are they at or above the threshold? From there decide if the crops are worth to put more money into.

Q: What are some of the things farmers can do for the next growing season?SM: Generally I don’t recommend spraying this year for next year. The history of insect control shows that we don’t control the insect popula-tion, we protect crops. In preparation for next year...just make decisions based on whether this year’s crops need to be protected and consider the same thing next year.

We chatted with Scott Meers, Insect Management Specialist at Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and asked him questions

about insects management. Check out the Q&A below or find Scott on Twitter @ABbugcounter.


Spray Nozzle

Technologies & Trends

The agricultural spraying industry is changing at a fast pace with new chemical formulations, potential regulation changes and spray drift con-cerns that are making it crucial for farmers to consider spray technolo-gies to help them in their #Spray15. There are several new agricultural spraying trends in the United States and Canada that are based around combating Glyphosate resistant weeds with new herbicide technology which includes Dicamba and 2,4-D. As a result of the new chemical for-mulations, drift mitigating technologies are increasingly important. This dynamic is putting the spray nozzle at the center of it and with it being the smallest and most overlooked piece of equipment on the sprayer that will have the greatest effect on the accuracy, efficiency, and drift poten-tial of each pesticide application.

Reduce Spray Drift with Air Induction Spray Nozzle TechnologyOne technique that’s simple to follow and effective in reducing spray drift is utilizing the most recent nozzle technologies that utilize Air In-duction. Air Induction technology in spray nozzles suck in air and mix them with the liquid to create larger droplets with the same volume of liquid by creating air pockets in the droplets. This creates uniformity by having many droplets the same size which mitigates spray drift.

Droplet Size Recommendation on the Chemical LabelThe most important factor to consider when selecting a nozzle is the chemical label. The label will show a droplet size range the chemical company has determined to be the best for efficacy and drift reduc-tion for their formulation. It’s important to understand that droplet size doesn’t necessarily mean a specific nozzle technology and that you can produce smaller, more uniform droplets while utilizing air induc-tion technology. Some air induction nozzles are specifically designed for contact herbicides or fungicides and insecticides where coverage is the most important. Old technology “flat fan” nozzles are often assumed to be needed when coverage is important but new air induction nozzles can

By: Wayne Steward, Pentair Hypro


produce less drift able fines with much more droplet uniformity than “flat fan” nozzles while not sacrificing efficacy.

Helpful Tools for Farmers in Selecting Spray NozzlesSelecting the correct nozzle can be quite daunting and by utilizing nozzle manufactures tools like spray nozzle calculators can help take some of the guesswork out of selecting the correct nozzle. By following the chem-ical label and utilizing new technology you should be able to have good efficacy while reducing drift and as a result increased yields.

Chemical Contamination - Importance of Boom CleanoutA recent hot trend in spraying is the importance of boom cleanout. With glyphosate resistant weeds, growers have to use more varied herbicide programs as opposed to using nearly all glyphosate. Cleaning boom plumbing when switching from one chemical to another (which is done more often these days) has become even more important with new seed herbicide resistance and new strong herbicide formulations. Mixing chemicals can cause buildup in the boom or can cause a reduction in yield by having remnants of old used chemicals mixing with the new. Leveraging a valve or plug at the end of the boom for complete flushing allows you to remove old chemicals from the plumbing. By maintaining clean booms growers can prevent striping and chemical buildup.


As days get shorter, it means only one thing on farms: harvest is here. With harvest comes added pressure and stress to get this year’s crop in the bin. Harvest is a farmer’s busiest time of the year and unfortunately one of the most dangerous. Fatigue and stress often lead to shortcuts and unsafe practices during this time, but it is essential to take breaks, slow down, follow safe practices and ensure everyone on the farm is trained to do the task at hand.

Below is a printable farm safety checklist from SAFE Work Manitoba.

Being proactive before harvest will help prepare the farm for a safe and healthy season.

• Develop a “safety first” approach with family members and work-ers. Follow safe practices and set good examples for others.

• Provide an orientation to new workers. Orientations go a long way in ensuring workers are familiar with the farm’s safety and health expectations.

• Train workers/family members on the safe operation of harvest-ing equipment and related tasks. Getting workers trained and familiar with tasks before harvest begins will ensure they have time to prepare, ask questions and be comfortable performing the tasks safely.

• Collect operator manuals for harvesting equipment and review these with equipment operators.

• Operational checks should be performed on harvesting equip-ment including augers, aeration fans, conveyors, augers, etc.

• Ensure proper inventories of personal protective equipment (PPE), tools and resources are available and accessible for work-ers and family members.

Farm Safety Checklist


• This is a great time to review the farm’s emergency plan with family members and workers. Ensure somebody trained and cer-tified in first aid is present at all times.

• Make sure everyone knows the legal land descriptions to farm-yards and fields in case of an emergency situation.

Working safely through harvest• Before moving machinery, all operators should be trained to

perform a walk-around check to ensure no one is near the equip-ment and warn anyone in the immediate area that the machinery will be moving.

• Keep bystanders away from high traffic areas in the farmyard.• Stay alert and take breaks when working long hours. Getting out

of the cab, taking meal breaks and rotating jobs every few hours will help stretch muscles and keep you alert.

• Remember to eat, drink lots of water and get some rest during harvest season.

• Do not allow extra riders on equipment. One seat, one rider!• Ensure farmyards and off-farm sites have adequate lighting.• Slips and trips can result in serious injury. Reduce the risk by al-

ways using three-point contact when climbing up or down ladders.• Never mount or dismount moving equipment. The small amount

of time saved is not worth the risk!• Before unclogging a plugged feeder on a combine, ensure the

engine is turned off.• Never trust hydraulic systems when working under a machine.

Always use a safety prop if working under a header or other heavy machinery.

• Electrical contact with overhead power lines can be fatal. Before moving any piece of equipment on roads or fields, be aware of power lines and ensure everyone on the farm knows the loca-tions. Do not forget that night time brings even more risk!

• When working alone, let someone know where you are work-ing and have scheduled check-in times. Always carry a means of communication, such as a cell phone or two-way radio.


• Avoid being entangled in farm equipment, particularly power take-offs (PTOs) and augers.

• Train workers on the hazards of this equipment and ensure workers are practising safety habits such as wearing tight-fitting clothing and walking around PTOs, not over.

• Take safety precautions around grain. • Be seen! Wear high visibility gear when working in high traffic

areas and in fields during harvest.

Working safely through harvest• Inspect harvest equipment regularly to ensure equipment re-

mains in good working condition.• Ensure PTO shields and guards are in place.• Ensure all guards, shields and access panels are in place on

equipment.• Ensure emergency stop buttons on conveyors are in good work-

ing condition and easily accessible by workers.• Equipment platforms are often 8-feet high. Keep equipment

platforms clean and free of tools and objects to avoid slips or falls.

• Check and fix any poor platforms, ladders, handrails, stepson farm equipment, storage facilities and buildings.

• Be prepared for emergency situations. Ensure first aid kits, fire extinguishers are stocked and in good working condition. This equipment must be readily accessible no matter where the work is being performed.

• Be sure to eliminate or put away trip hazards such as shovels, pails, cords and tools.

• Check roads and fields for potential erosion or washout loca-tions. If you do find such a hazard, communicate this to all work-ers on the farm and take corrective actions.


Preventing fires at harvest• Have operational fire extinguishers mounted on equipment and

ensure everyone is trained to use them.

• Ensure bearings and drives are lubricated and adjust tension as needed.

• Check exposed wiring for damage, wear and deterioration.• Remove crop residue, dust, debris, dirt and excess lubricant

around all heat sources regularly.• Before refueling farm equipment, allow engine to cool.• During the day, walk around machinery and watch, listen and

smell to check everything is in good working order.• Carry a shovel on harvesting equipment for potential fires. Take

precautionary measures when using low clearance vehicles in fields, as exhaust pipes and catalytic converters can ignite dry grass or stubble.

Children on the farm at harvest• Supervise children at all times and have a designated play area.• Keep children away from busy areas of the farm, particularly

grain bins, grain carts and farm machinery.• Keeping everyone safe on roadways• Ensure all machinery is equipped with proper lighting, signage

and reflectors when travelling on roadways.• Display the SMV (slow moving vehicle) sign.• Ensure lights, signage and reflectors are visible and clean.• Use a pilot vehicle when transporting oversized agricultural

equipment.• Whenever possible, move equipment during the day on second-

ary roads.• Make sure your equipment will fit under power lines along the

road and in your yard and on bridge structures along your route (check width and height).

• Map out your route before transporting equipment and get ap-propriate permits, when applicable

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Tips To Make The Most Out Of Your #Harvest15

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