A lack of both knowledge about agriculture and any apparent willingness to learn is frustrating one couple near the Victorian/South Australian border.
Maddi Redding and fiance Hamish Kester, Apsley, run a harvest contracting business that strips crops from the NSW/Queensland border to Condobolin in NSW and farms in SA.
Ms Redding said their frustrations were with policy makers' lack of knowledge about how agricultural businesses operated and their importance to the economy.
She said her partner's request to have the contracting business be declared an essential service had been refused by NSW authorities.
Harvesting was pivotal part of primary production, producing food for human consumption and livestock and pastures, she said.
There was no understanding that crops such as wheat, barley, canola and oats were a critical part of the food chain.
She said the attitude of the decision makers was an example of the town and country divide.
"It highlights the disconnect with state governments about what really drives this economy. We make food for every Australian but the people that should know, don't know in any detail," she said.
She said the crops in the area of northern NSW were looking like the best for a long time.
"It feels like they don't realise there are people living on the border and people don't mingle, but that's far from the truth," she said.
Ms Redding said the harvesting process was done in isolation with little or no human interactions.
The introduction of a hard border with SA added to the frustration.
She said it was frustrating that the authorities were not even asking the questions to learn more.
Ms Redding said she realised that everyone was doing it tough.
There was no handbook for a pandemic, but this could be managed so much better if Government spoke to each other and the affected communities, she said.
"Metropolitan rules don't work for farming communities," she said.
"Our main goal is to educate people about what goes on out here.
"Agriculture has been overlooked for years and this has brought it to the fore. It's an important issue and you need to know."
Ms Redding took to social media to express her frustrations.
"Most people of my Facebook friend list would know what this is, however the four people he has spoken to at the NSW government had no idea and therefore deemed him non-essential," she posted.
"Now let me paint those people with no clue a picture. Did you eat breakfast today? Maybe, Weetbix, toast or even some pancakes. What do you have for lunch? Carrots and homos? A nice healthy chickpea salad?
"Wheat, chickpeas, canola and barley - all these crops need to be harvested to be able to give you the products."
"A job that feeds Australia. A job that can easily, and probably normally would keep people socially distanced anyway. The drivers of both headers and chaser bins sit in the header cab from dawn till well into the next morning.
"The farmers work alone moving the field bins and organise logistics, the truckies come in, roll the tarp down, fill up and drive that well travelled road back to the silos."
