For the second year in a row COVID-19 is causing headaches for grain farmers, who are begging the Federal and state governments to allow them to bring in overseas machinery drivers for this year's harvest.
Last year, with borders closed due to COVID-19, farmers were so desperate for labour they trained stood-down pilots to drive their harvesters.
This year, they do not want to battle on again and Mic Fels has called on the state and Federal Governments to allow several thousand vaccinated workers from the northern hemisphere.
If overseas workers were not allowed in, he said farmers would have to leave their crops in the ground until they had time to harvest them all themselves, meaning by January, yields and revenue would be down.