COUNTRY Fire Authority District 17 has asked northern Wimmera farmers not to harvest during the hottest parts of the day on Friday and Saturday.
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The CFA is concerned harvest machinery could start fires as temperatures are expected to reach around 40 degrees on Friday and Saturday.
It is requested farmers do not harvest between 1pm and 7pm.
"If farmers can refrain from harvesting, it removes one of the avenues for fires to start," District 17 commander Wayne Hirth said.
"Headers are cutting and create a lot of dust, which is very combustible. If it gets into hot parts of the motor, or if the header hits a rock in the crop, it can start a fire very easily.
"If a fire starts, farmers can say goodbye to your header, not to mention the crop as well."
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The request comes after a fire at a hay shed on Mokepilly Road, Jung, was contained but will continue to burn across the weekend.
"The shed was a quarter full of machinery and a quarter full of hay, so we've salvaged the machinery but we're letting the hay basically burn away," Mr Hirth said.
"We had crews there until midnight (Thursday) night. What they've done is put in a good firebreak around the shed, a major buffer zone, so it can be contained.
"We're just going to let it burn out over the weekend and periodically keep an eye on it.
"We are warning the community there will be visible smoke for a number of days."
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