There are an estimated 50,000 less backpackers in the country this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Australian Custom Harvesters Association president Rod Gribble said this had led to some growers struggling to find workers for harvest.
"There seems to be a shortfall of local people who can do, or want to do the work," Mr Gribble said.
However, retirees and workers from industries hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak seem to be stepping up to the plate.
Bob McCauley, 73, is a semi-retired bricklayer and contract fencer from Molong.
Around thirty years ago he spent two months carting grain at Burcher and this year he's hoping to revisit the experience, advertising for harvest work in the paper.
"I thought this is an opportunity, it's the first time the farmers have had a good season in a while and they can't get backpackers," Mr McCauley said.
"There's a shortage of labour and I thought I would put my hand up to help out and get some extra money to top up the pension."
Mr McCauley, who holds a heavy rigid licence, said since placing the ad he had only had one phone call so far, and the farmer he spoke to said most of the people who had contacted him looking for work had been over 65.
"We're the ones ready to work, I've got some aches and pains like any 73-year-old, but I'm willing to work all hours, seven days a week."
Mr Gribble said he could see retirees helping to fill the gap in the harvest workforce.
"They might not want to work 12 months of the year, but they can work six weeks of the year in harvest.
"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to do it, you just have to have an open minded attitude and give it a shot."
Truck drivers sought after for harvest
However, Mr Gribble acknowledged that it was not possible to train a truck driver on the job, a role which growers are finding particularly difficult to fill given the size of this year's harvest.
NSW Farmers Baradine chair Elliot Shannon also pointed out that although a lot of people were looking for work at the moment, not many had truck licences.
"It is difficult to find someone with an HC (heavy combination) licence and someone with a MC (multi combination) licence is nearly impossible to find," Mr Shannon said.
Mr Gribble said for this reason many growers had decided to store grain on farm for now and would hire someone to cart it to receival sites after harvest, when demand for truck drivers lost momentum.
Keeden Mickelburough is the operations manager for Bingham Agriculture, a contracting company with a fleet of 20 headers, which operates from southern Queensland to Victoria.
He said they don't usually rely on backpackers but this season they had seen applicants from a wide array of industries and they now have a boat captain and an A380 pilot as part of the team.
The help was very welcomed with Bingham Agriculture in high demand due to the bumper season.
"My phone has been running flat out with people wanting headers," Mr Mickelburough said.
"We will be able to get to all our annual clients and we've even been able to grab some extra work on the way because down south the harvest has pushed back due to the wet weather this year.
"We can't get to everyone but we try to help where we can." Mr Mickelburough said they had now wrapped up in Queensland and the majority of their headers were now working in the Moree area, while others were just starting to strip in southern NSW.
