Life decisions in a changing contracting landscape

Words by: Delwyn Dickey

Matthew Bourke is carrying on a family tradition that started 50 years ago when his grandfather began contract harvesting in northern Victoria.

A better work/life balance has been at the heart of positive changes at Bourke Harvesting.

When he pulls into the Bourke Harvesting business sites straddling Berndt Street, in the little town of Tungamah, Matthew knows every nook and cranny of the yards, workshop and machinery shed, having spent a good portion of his life here.

“You can see in the workshop where we’ve built onto the shed, slowly tacked on bit by bit over the years. Every bit that’s been tacked on tells a bit of a story really,” he says fondly.

Unlike most larger contractors, the Bourkes have never farmed, so the focus has always been on the yards and the machinery in them.

Growing up, the September school holidays had been the best time of the year for Matthew, when he helped the crew work on the last of their pre-season maintenance, packing up all the trucks for the annual harvest convoy north to southern Queensland.

The end of the holidays was also the worst time of the year, with the yards quiet and almost empty as Matthew headed back to school after the crews had headed north without him.

As with many contractors, the annual harvest migration north was a big part of business and the Bourke family and harvesting crews have been making the trip for almost 50 years, with drought the only thing that had occasionally interfered over the years.

One of those years had been during the Great Dry of 1982/83 – probably the worst drought of last century – when almost all of eastern Australia was severely impacted, with huge crop and livestock losses.

Victoria was the state worst affected for cropping, with wheat production alone slashed by 85 percent.

With little contracting work available, in desperation Matthew’s father and grandfather had taken two headers across the expansive Nullarbor Plain to find work in Western Australia.

“It was a huge ask back then with dirt roads,” says Matthew.

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The Great Dry saw record low rainfall including the northern wet season failing. Huge fires in tinder dry grasslands and forest across Victoria and South Australia in February 1983 killed 75 people, mostly on February 16th - Ash Wednesday.

It was the first time the connection between El Nino weather patterns and drought really entered public consciousness.

When Matthew was young, his father and grandfather had set a cracking pace with the business, basically harvesting all year round.

“The hours they were putting on the machines was phenomenal,” he says.

“Summer was rice and corn, and was as big or bigger than their winter crop harvest – wheat, barley, canola.”

They would start harvest in September in central Queensland and work their way through to Victoria and finish at the end of January.

“Then they’d get all the machines in the shed and strip them down, repair and change over to get into harvesting rice which would start in March. It was a revolving wheel,” reckons Matthew.

By the time Matthew was finally able to step into his father’s and grandfather’s shoes, 11 years ago, after finishing school and qualifying as a fabricator – a welding apprenticeship, the contracting landscape and his father’s appetite for the gruelling hours had changed.

“Farmers weren’t getting the return for their investment growing the corn and the rice like they were, and most farmers now have at least one or more of their own headers,” Matthew says.

This had helped Ian make a life decision about 12 years ago to calm the stressful pace of the business and slow things down a bit.

“We still do a little bit of summer harvesting – sorghum and corn but not on the scale it once was,” Matthew says.

While Ian kept the bigger and better jobs in the north, he also began building his client base closer to home, around western NSW in the northern Riverina area of Griffith and Hillston.

“There is a large amount of broad acre farmland there and also a huge amount of irrigation,” advises Matthew.

This has enabled half the crews to stay in that one area for almost the entire harvest, with just eight of the 16 header machines still heading north in September.

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“We have really tried to hone in on there, rather than dragging all the machines all the way to Queensland with the cost of freight and the chance of summer rainfall. We’re trying to diversify and have a bet each way.”

At the end of January, with the main harvest at an end, the yards once again become a centre of activity as the task of washing and stripped down all the machines begins.

In the past this had been frenetic, getting the machines ready for the start of the rice harvest in March. Even though the work load is easier to manage now, with 16 headers and nearly 30 fronts, it is still very busy in the workshop year round for the two full-time mechanics.

Many repairs are able to be done on site, with Matthew able to put his background in welding to good use.

This also enables him to take on projects through his local dealer - buying in damaged equipment which he can repair himself and then put to use in his operation.

By late August, they’re ready for the next harvest season and starting to move equipment up to Queensland and into the Riverina area again.

Different soil types around the agricultural heartland in the east can see different harvesting challenges depending on the weather.

During the wet 2022 season, the red sandy soils of western NSW were a nightmare to harvest, with machinery constantly sinking.

“We’d get bogged and we’d have 10 headers in the same paddock and get bogged 50 times a day,” Matthew says.

“The farmer hired a little mini excavator to dig around the machine. Then they’d get a tractor and pull us out. It only took five minutes, but it was very frustrating at the time and a good example of why we can’t send all our machines to the one farm or to one part of the country,” he says.

“We need to spread our risk and work in different areas and with different growers,” he says.

While the black soils of northern NSW and southern Queensland have a good base so the machines didn’t tend to sink in the wet, their high clay content makes them highly prone to compaction, with farmers big on all equipment running on the same wheel track to combat this.

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Meeting this challenge saw Matthew invest in a Case 8250 tracked header specifically aimed at these farms.

Tracked machines are popular with most farmers as the tracks spread the weight of the machine better, while pulling it across the ground rather than pushing, and seeing significantly less compaction.

With increasingly variable weather patterns generally, including wetter harvests in the last few years, Matthew has found the advantages of tracked machines far outweigh any negatives, with two more tracked headers on order for this coming season.

“Despite higher service costs and being more difficult to transport, in a wet year they are a gamechanger for the business,” he says.

Case and, more recently, New Holland, have been the mainstay of the business for more than 30 years since Ian moved over from Massey Ferguson with the purchase of a Case IH 1680 back in the early 1990’s.

The Axial-Flow rotor setup was more suited to the wide variety of crops they were harvesting. Working well with rice and corn as well as wheat and barley, the change turned the business around, he reckons.

Matthew also scores Case highly for reliability - although he was happy to see Case release the AF 10 recently as he felt capacity had fallen behind other competitors.

While 14 of their headers are Case machines, they have recently bought in two New Holland combines to add capacity with their machines in Victoria, trying to get more tonnes per hour.

Good growing conditions locally, with plenty of rain over the last few years, have seen bumper crops with outstanding yields.

Case tractors and Coolamon chaser bins round off the work kit, along with a couple of trucks for shifting equipment around, including a twin-steer tri-axle drive Volvo, purpose-built for carting headers, and a drop deck as well.

When it comes to fronts, all had been 40 and 45ft wide MacDondraper fronts up until now, with a 50/50 split between rigid and flex, although Matthew has recently added 61ft wide MacDon FT2 61 draper headers to the mix, for a control traffic system with some of their clients in the Riverina area.

Going up to the 61ft is completely new for them and has been a game changer, he reckons, with the flex machine getting “unbelievable” ground speed when harvesting on the deck for lentils.

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But the wider fronts also mean other upgrades are needed.

“Because the fronts are bigger, you need bigger unloading augers, bigger chaser bins – just a lot more to handle. An experienced driver will pick it up more easily.”

Fortunately, many of their 30-member harvesting team already have extensive experience with around half coming from Canada each year where they are familiar with broadacre farming already. They also have experience with Case and New Holland.

“They’ve often just finished their own harvest. They can just hop on and go,” says Matthew.

Australians often need a bit more training, he reckons, as they are not as familiar with the equipment.

Having a good reputation means finding staff each year usually comes down to word-of-mouth, with about half of the crews coming back each year.

“The photos of harvest look pretty amazing, but when you’re in, it’s hot and dusty, and there’s a lot going on. It’s not a laid-back operation so we try and make the harvest as enjoyable as possible.”

“I tell staff I will choose people who may not be as experienced but who are easy to get on with over staff who are very good at their job but difficult to get on with.”

It helps if the group know each other, and get on year-on-year, Matthew reckons. Growers also appreciate having a good rapport with familiar staff as well as himself.

Together since their early teens, and now both in their early 30’s, Matthew and wife Brooke made a life decision of their own 10 months ago when baby Max joined the Bourke family household.

While long involved with the contracting, Brooke also owned and operated her own hairdressing salon in Yarrawonga, a 15-minute drive from the workshop on the shores of Lake Mulwala where they live.

During harvest, this could be very stressful with extended weekends away from the salon and long hours spent driving to catch up with Matthew.

With a full schedule already and a baby on the way, she made the decision to step back and dedicate more time to their new arrival and the family business by selling her salon.

Now during harvest, Brooke can bring Max and spend time away with Matthew on the road, instead of the sprint to and from the salon.

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Even, life is still pretty full-on. Brooke looks after the books and wages, cooks and runs meals around for staff, shifts vehicles and machinery, all while looking after Max.

Matthew is the first to admit he couldn’t do what he does without Brooke’s support - they’re a good team, he reckons.

It seems it won’t be long before Max will also know and love every nook and cranny of the yards, workshop and machinery shed, at Bourke Harvesting.

And, when he’s old enough for school, it will be his turn to long for the September holidays – the best time of the year.