Wheat sown in late autumn or early winter ripens in the summer weather. Although harvesting can be done as early as November, the main crop comes in December and is usually finished by the end of January.

Harvesting is now done by machines, but the early settlers who first farmed the land had to gather, thresh which is to separate the kernel from the husk, and winnow which is where they clean the chaff from the grain, all by hand.

In 1884, Hugh Victor, McKay invented a machine which became known as the Sunshine Harvester. It could strip, thresh, winnow and put the grain into bags, all in one continuous operation.

But even with the machines, it was difficult to harvest crops which had been flattened or damaged by bad weather.

A new Harvester invented by Headlie Taylor, would solve the problem of the flattened and weather damaged crop.