A local farmer is trying to figure out how one of his tractors caught fire earlier this week.

Tim Stoesz of Stoesz Farms Ltd. explained he was out of town when his nephew called to say that, unknown to anyone, the tractor parked on his yard burned to the ground.

"It was a bit of a surprise I guess. We're just happy that it wasn't parked close to any other machinery or buildings," he said, noting the tractor had been parked in that spot on the north side of the yard for about a week.

Stoesz wondered if the tractor was struck by lightning during the storm on Sunday night but, because the fire didn't spread far, he also felt the blaze could have happened Monday after the rain passed.

"It could be an electrical short. Or maybe lightning hit it Sunday and it only caught fire a day later. It's hard to tell," he said.

According to Stoesz, the damage is essentially localized to the the hook ups for the heavy-harrow that was hitched to the tractor, and the grassy patch they were parked on.

"There's even some trees very close to it and they seem to be okay too. I guess the wind maybe kept the heat away, I'm not sure," he noted.

Stoesz is asking anyone who may have seen smoke in the area south of Horndean on Sunday or Monday to get in touch.

"I've talked to all the surrounding neighbours and nobody saw any smoke or fire, so we still don't know when exactly it happened but it happened."

Meantime, Stoesz said this incident won't slow down harvest progress as the tractor wasn't the main one being used on the farm. He noted they'll either rent another tractor to help get the crop off, or do a little more switching around with the remaining tractors.