Farm Weekly chatted with some growers they knew were still hard at it, in the driver's seat of their harvesters, tractors and trucks this week to see how they were progressing.
Shayne Smith, Dumbleyung.
Farming is a family affair for father Ken and sons Lee, Troy and Shayne Smith and their families.
Speaking to Shayne on Monday, they were on track to finish that afternoon, with their harvest panning out to be around average or just below.
"Of course our average lifted significantly in the last couple of years," Mr Smith said.
"Still this year we have fallen short of where we thought we would be when we discussed it in October.
"At that stage we were probably on target for an above average year.
"But the lack of rain in October and the hot dry finish were major influences on the result.
"It took the cream off the top, but production wise it really was average to just below."
The Smiths planted canola, wheat, barley, faba beans and lupins with their final stages focused on their barley.
"We are finishing on the barley," he said.
"This is because we left 1000 hectares at the end to get it into malt specifications.
"It means we have been creating a few little headaches for ourselves with the extra time spent grading."
Mr Smith said leaving the last of the barley a bit longer may have blown out harvest length a little, but the pricing made it rewarding.
"With the earlier contracts we made the malt premium factored in," he said.
"Spending the time to get this right is important and makes it worthwhile.
He said one of the key lessons from this year's harvest was the influence of timing.
"We have found anything that was sown earlier and got up had better results," Mr Smith said.
"Sowing time and emergence time really play a massive role in the outcome.
"Anything that was earlier sown as been the winner basically.
"In terms of yields lupins and canola to wheat are generally 2:1 ratio and this year those numbers are a little closer together."
Frost affected some of the crops as well.
The overall rainfall had not been great for their season and that was defined by two early rainfall events that set up the season.
"It was a dry seeding, a very dry May," he said.
"Then a 50-60mm late May early June created a few other problems with some chemical damage, burst seed and poor wheat vigour."
The cold June also compounded the effects and made the early sown crops perform better.
