A combine harvests wheat in Shiqiao town in Taibai Lake New Area, Jining. [Photo/Dazhong News]

Farmers in Jining, Shandong province, China's primary winter wheat producing region, have begun harvesting their crops. 

According to a local farmer, this year's average wheat harvest loss rate will be kept under 2 percent due to the widespread usage of farm equipment. 

"To limit grain loss, we are using domestically built harvesters," Han Guode, the head of an agricultural cooperative in Zoucheng, a county-level city of Jining, told Jining News. 

Han also stated that machine harvesting can enhance the output of his 306-hectare fields by more than 25,000 kilograms, resulting in an additional profit of 80,000 yuan ($11,992).

At Shiqiao town in Taibai Lake New Area, nearly 60 sets of combines are used every day to harvest wheat round the clock, with a daily capacity of 467 hectares. The town's total winter wheat output is expected to reach 17,000 metric tons.

"It was exhausting to harvest wheat by hand. Thanks to farm equipment, retired farmers like me are free now," said Zhang Laijin, a Shiqiao town resident.

As of June 6, 104,418 hectares of winter wheat fields have been harvested across Jining, which is 29.7 percent of the total crop area in the city. Over 99.8 percent of the area that has already been harvested was done by machines.

Farmers harvest wheat in the fields of Shiqiao town in Taibai Lake New Area, Jining. [Photo/Dazhong News]