Farmers reap wheat with harvesters in Tancheng county, Linyi city of Shandong province, on Thursday. [Photo by Ding Shanshan/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Machine harvesting of winter wheat started on Thursday across Shandong province, one of the major winter wheat production areas in China.

A total of 1.5 million sets of machines including harvesters will be used this year to reduce grain loss, according to local agricultural authorities.

As of Sunday, 517,200 hectares of winter wheat have been harvested across the province, 12.9 percent of the total area of the crop in the province. Over 99.57 percent of the area that has already been harvested was done by machines.

Farmers reap wheat with harvesters in Tancheng county, Linyi city of Shandong province, on Thursday. [Photo by Ding Shanshan/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Farmers reap wheat with harvesters in Tancheng county, Linyi city of Shandong province, on Thursday. [Photo by Ding Shanshan/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Farmers reap wheat with harvesters in Tancheng county, Linyi city of Shandong province, on Thursday. [Photo by Ding Shanshan/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Farmers reap wheat with harvesters in Tancheng county, Linyi city of Shandong province, on Thursday. [Photo by Ding Shanshan/for chinadaily.com.cn]