Armen Agronyan, who lives about 150km away from our office in Krymigireeskoe village, southern Russia, runs a contract harvesting operation with 87 assorted combines from John Deere, New Holland and Case.

The harvest season starts south of our office in Alexandrovak and moves slowly north, taking in the Stavropol area, Veronezh and the central black earth regions further north.

The crops harvested can vary from wheat to rice and anything in between. The combining season starts off with barley and wheat, and finishes with maize and sunflowers, which are often harvested in the snow.

Mr Agronyan will usually cut 150,000ha in a season, with each combine covering an average of 1,700ha. In total, the season lasts for about seven months and each harvester will clock up about 1,000 engine hours.

They’ll also each cover 1,500km on the road. That includes moving anything from 50-200km between jobs, so tyres tend to be the main wearing part.

The biggest problem faced by the contractors is getting to places on time. The drivers often get lost because most live in other parts of Russia during the off-season. The police also stop combines and cause hold-ups, and roadside breakdowns can slow things down, too.

It’s not uncommon to see a combine parked on the side of the road for three or four days waiting for a spare part. When this happens, the combine drivers have to sleep with their machine because there wouldn’t be much of it left if it was abandoned for a couple of days.

Combine drivers are paid by the hectare, which, conveniently for the contractors, never seems to add up to the total size of the field. A tonnage bonus is also paid on top of that. Each farm supplies fuel, three meals a day and four litres of water per day, plus accommodation for the drivers and transport to and from the field.

These large combine contractors have plenty of work because of the huge area of crops and extreme heat at harvest. The temperature causes the wheat to ripen very quickly and, if it’s not harvested in time, crops start falling on the floor if they’re hit by a heavy thunderstorm. In most cases, the wheat harvest needs to be finished within 10 days.

For the farmers, the biggest problem is making sure contractors cut the whole field, not just what you can see from the gate. They must also check that drivers cut low enough, rather than just running over the crop.

Robin Jewer is a farmer and agronomist with Andropovsk Farms in the southern Russian region of Stavropol Krai. He manages 18,000ha, spread over 180km, which is split into six blocks. Cropping includes 14,000ha of wheat, oilseed rape, sunflowers, peas, linseed, maize and potatoes.