diff --git a/pkg/engine/compat.go b/pkg/engine/compat.go
index 29ff9879f4..b61af8e9d6 100644
--- a/pkg/engine/compat.go
+++ b/pkg/engine/compat.go
@@ -285,11 +285,6 @@ func collectSamplesFromRow(builder *labels.Builder, rec arrow.Record, i int) (pr
 	// TODO: we add a lot of overhead by reading row by row. Switch to vectorized conversion.
 	for colIdx := range int(rec.NumCols()) {
 		col := rec.Column(colIdx)
-		// Ignore column values that are NULL or invalid
-		if col.IsNull(i) || !col.IsValid(i) {
-			return promql.Sample{}, false
-		}
-
 		field := rec.Schema().Field(colIdx)
 		ident, err := semconv.ParseFQN(field.Name)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -300,12 +295,20 @@ func collectSamplesFromRow(builder *labels.Builder, rec arrow.Record, i int) (pr
 
 		// Extract timestamp
 		if ident.Equal(semconv.ColumnIdentTimestamp) {
+			// Ignore column values that are NULL or invalid
+			if col.IsNull(i) || !col.IsValid(i) {
+				return promql.Sample{}, false
+			}
 			// [promql.Sample] expects milliseconds as timestamp unit
 			sample.T = int64(col.(*array.Timestamp).Value(i) / 1e6)
 			continue
 		}
 
 		if ident.Equal(semconv.ColumnIdentValue) {
+			// Ignore column values that are NULL or invalid
+			if col.IsNull(i) || !col.IsValid(i) {
+				return promql.Sample{}, false
+			}
 			col, ok := col.(*array.Float64)
 			if !ok {
 				return promql.Sample{}, false
diff --git a/pkg/engine/compat_test.go b/pkg/engine/compat_test.go
index a0e98eb299..273eeeab3f 100644
--- a/pkg/engine/compat_test.go
+++ b/pkg/engine/compat_test.go
@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@ func TestVectorResultBuilder(t *testing.T) {
 		rows := arrowtest.Rows{
 			{colTs.FQN(): time.Unix(0, 1620000000000000000).UTC(), colVal.FQN(): float64(42), colInst.FQN(): "localhost:9090", colJob.FQN(): "prometheus"},
 			{colTs.FQN(): time.Unix(0, 1620000000000000000).UTC(), colVal.FQN(): float64(23), colInst.FQN(): "localhost:9100", colJob.FQN(): "node-exporter"},
+			{colTs.FQN(): time.Unix(0, 1620000000000000000).UTC(), colVal.FQN(): float64(32), colInst.FQN(): nil, colJob.FQN(): "node-exporter"},
 			{colTs.FQN(): time.Unix(0, 1620000000000000000).UTC(), colVal.FQN(): float64(15), colInst.FQN(): "localhost:9100", colJob.FQN(): "prometheus"},
 		}
 
@@ -225,12 +226,12 @@ func TestVectorResultBuilder(t *testing.T) {
 		err := collectResult(context.Background(), pipeline, builder)
 
 		require.NoError(t, err)
-		require.Equal(t, 3, builder.Len())
+		require.Equal(t, 4, builder.Len())
 
 		md, _ := metadata.NewContext(t.Context())
 		result := builder.Build(stats.Result{}, md)
 		vector := result.Data.(promql.Vector)
-		require.Equal(t, 3, len(vector))
+		require.Equal(t, 4, len(vector))
 
 		expected := promql.Vector{
 			{
@@ -248,6 +249,11 @@ func TestVectorResultBuilder(t *testing.T) {
 				F:      15.0,
 				Metric: labels.FromStrings("instance", "localhost:9100", "job", "prometheus"),
 			},
+			{
+				T:      int64(1620000000000),
+				F:      32.0,
+				Metric: labels.FromStrings("job", "node-exporter"),
+			},
 		}
 		require.Equal(t, expected, vector)
 	})