Custom harvesting relieves farmers from having to invest capital in expensive equipment while at the same time maximizing the machinery's use.
[2] However, World War II caused a labor and materials shortage, and the custom harvesting industry experienced a great growth.
In North America, the area from Texas to Saskatchewan was heavily traversed by custom harvesters.
Harvesters would pass their routes and clients down to their children, thus turning custom combining into family tradition.
In China, custom harvesting became such a popular profession in the late 20th century that too many people entered the industry and prices became too low to generate a profit.