With a UK harvest kick-off imminent, rural insurer NFU Mutual is advising farmers to take all possible precautions to reduce the risk of combine fires this summer. "Every harvest brings a crop of harvest fires – typically in combine harvesters when an overheated component ignites chaff or straw," says the firm's Ian Jewitt, adding that the large rural insurer typically deals with claims for over £50m for damage to farm machinery each year – including hundreds of harvest fire claims.