The size of harvesters and bin-busting yields is driving farmers across the country to upgrade their chaser bins.
But farmers hoping to order a new bin in time for the 2022 harvest need to think again.
According to manufacturers and dealers at the Dowerin GWN7 machinery field days in Western Australia last week, order books are full for 2022 and fast filling up for 2023.
Waringa general manager Sam Abbott said they "can't get enough bins at the moment".
The company has been importing and distributing bins produced by Elmer's in Altona, Canada, since 2015.
Mr Abbott said Elmer's was a family business and as its owners were also farmers, they had a good understanding of on-farm requirements.
He said the two most popular models they offered were the 55 tonne tracked bin and the 41t tandem.
"We started off with their tracked bins and then due to a lot of inquiry and demand from our customers we worked with Elmer's to develop the tandem axle range," Mr Abbott said.
"We sell quite a few of our bins with tracks and they are a huge hit.
"The tracks are not suited to every customer, we do have a lot of people that still like the tyre models, but for flotation and minimising compaction they are a really good option."
When it comes to what's driving the investment, Mr Abbott said it's not just the run of good seasons, it's about efficiency.
He said scale systems were a good example, with all of their bins going out with load cells this year.
"There's a huge labour shortage at the moment and being able to run your operation as efficiently as possible is definitely the key," he said.
"Farmers are generally looking to go to bigger sizes and then obviously bring some of that technology that's available now into it as well."
Coolamon WA, SA and Qld regional sales director Preston Grigg said he had received good interest from new and existing customers at Dowerin.
"Harvesters are getting bigger and bigger, and the bigger the combine gets, the bigger you've got to have the chaser bin," he said.
"A chaser bin would normally last a farmer 20 years but now with the new big combines they have to upgrade because you can't spend all that money on a combine to have it standing still in the paddock.
"You need the best equipment you can get your hands on to keep the combines moving."
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Coolamon chaser bins and spreaders are manufactured in NSW at the Coolamon Steelworks.
The company has a staff of 62 and has been in the manufacturing sector for 50 years.
Mr Grigg said the 36t chaser bin is the company's biggest seller but said they were also seeing an increase in sales for their 45t and 60t bins.
"Recently we've had some inquires from people wanting us to make an 80t chaser bin," he said.
"We haven't made one yet, just doing our feasibility at the moment.
"We're Australian-made, Australian-designed and the owners of the business were previously dealers, farmers and contractors so they understand the farming industry."
Third-generation West Australian family business GrainKing also had plenty of inquiry at the field day.
The company was established in 1981 and has almost 50 staff between its two branches at Perth and Cunderdin.
GrainKing managing director Martin Trewarn said they aimed to listen to what farmers wanted and had put a lot of time and effort into R&D over the past five years.
The company manufactures chaser bins, seed and super bins, and mother bins in WA and these products are now marketed under the brand Nyrex.
Mr Trewarn said they had definitely seen an increase in farmers upgrading their gear, with chaser bins the largest number of units the business sells.
Sales of mother bins were on the rise and education on seed and super bins had also driven massive growth in this category.
"They all take different hours to build; in the last three years it's all been about what we can actually build," he said.
"If I could build what I could sell we probably would have sold another 200 units."
Looking ahead Mr Trewarn expects Australian manufacturers of ag equipment that can deliver inside a 12-month window are likely to see continued demand.
"We've had massive growth, the trick is for us is how much investment do you put into growing your production because it's hard to know how much longer it's going to go," he said.
