Agricultural, Horticultural and Logging Plant Operators
Operate agricultural, horticultural and logging plant to clear and cultivate land, sow, fertilise and harvest crops, fell trees and move logs.
The last week of harvest
You are a header operator on a family cropping farm, with ripe wheat standing in the paddocks and rain forecast in two days. It is 11am and the day is hot and dry. The crop is ready, the weather is closing in, and every hour in the paddock matters. A few choices today will test how well you look after the machine, the crop and the people around you.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I know the grain moisture is a bit higher than we would like, but the weather is turning. Can you keep going through the middle of the day and into the night? I will pay for the extra drying. We just need to get it off.
Agree and run through to dawn, since the crop is the farm's whole year and there is no time to waste at all, so push on
By two in the morning you are making mistakes, and you nearly clip a power pole at the edge of the paddock. A tired operator can lose more crop than the rain would have.
Agree to a long day, but ask for a swap with another driver or a break so that someone fresh takes the night
Wayne arranges for his nephew to take the second shift. Between you, the crop is harvested before the rain, and neither of you drives while exhausted.
Say you will do your normal hours and no more, and leave Wayne to find another driver
You protect your own rest, but Wayne has no one else and loses part of the crop. A conversation about the swap would have helped you both.
There is a soft wet patch in the corner of the paddock near the dam. The crop looks good there, and it is about fifty metres square. It would be a shame to leave it. Do you think the header will get through?
Leave the wet corner for now, mark it on the map and come back with a lighter machine if it dries
The wet patch is marked and left. The rest of the paddock is done on time, and Ellis returns the following day with a smaller machine and gets most of the corner.
Take the header through slowly, since the crop is too good to leave and the wet patch looks fine from up here
The header sinks to its axles. It takes a tractor and most of the afternoon to pull it out, and the machine is damaged. A crop left standing is cheaper than a stuck header.
Walk the wet corner first and try a short pass at the edge, ready to back out
Walking the patch is sensible, and the edge holds. But the middle is softer than it looks from the cab, and you have to turn back, losing time you could have spent elsewhere.
Dad said I can ride in the cab with you for a few rounds, if that's okay. I will sit very still and not touch anything. It is my favourite part of the year, and I have been waiting all week.
Say yes, because her dad has agreed and she will be quiet and no trouble
She is thrilled, but there is only one seat and the cab is not designed for a passenger. You spend the rounds worried about whether she is safe instead of watching the crop.
Say yes for one slow round only, because it will make her day and you are sure nothing will go wrong out here
During the round a rock in the paddock makes the machine jolt, and she bangs her head on the door frame. She is fine, but Wayne is upset, and you realise a passenger had no place on the machine.
Say you would love to, but the cab is a workplace and passengers are not allowed on the harvester
Maya is disappointed, but you suggest she watches from the ute, and she waves each time you turn. Wayne thanks you for being straight with her.
How it went
The crop was off the paddock before the rain, and nobody was hurt. Plant operators on farms and in forests work with big machines, nature and weather, and with people they have often known for years. Does the idea of working outdoors, at a rhythm set by the seasons, appeal to you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The tree with the nest
A fictional case set in a broadacre cropping farm in harvest season, and a plantation forest nearby where logging crews work.
The situation
Keanu was operating a harvester in a plantation forest at Cooper Ridge, cutting trees to a plan and loading logs onto a truck. Halfway through the afternoon, he noticed a large old tree at the edge of the coupe, outside the plantation rows, with a hollow near the top and a pair of birds going in and out. The tree was not marked on the plan to be cut, but it leaned toward the line, and the next truck was due in an hour.
What they did
Keanu stopped the machine and radioed his supervisor to ask whether the tree was meant to be taken. The supervisor checked the plan and the environmental notes and told him to leave it and to mark it with tape. Keanu cut around it, leaving a gap, and noted its position in the daily log so the next crew would not mistake it for a tree to be cut.
How it turned out
The ecology officer later confirmed that the tree was a breeding hollow and had been left out of the plan on purpose. The extra care meant a slower afternoon and one short load, but the supervisor included the tree in the next coupe map. Keanu said he was glad he had asked rather than guessed.
What would you do?
- Would you have asked before cutting, or trusted your own idea about what was meant to be cut?
- Why might a tree that is not on the plan still matter?
- How do you think a good operator keeps both the plan and the environment in mind?