14 Jun Jada: Rocking and Rolling with blending on our minds

Upon our arrival, wheat was not completely ready here in Colby. Today was a different story when we tested wheat in the Goodland area- we are rocking and rolling. For the last couple of days it has been very, very windy making it dusty but helping dry our fields. Despite the winds, moisture is still a concern as it has been ranging from the high 12’s to 16%. This has kept everyone on their toes concentrating on blending our loads so they are not too wet for the elevator.

When blending, our goal is to cut both dry and wet wheat simultaneously to avoid having to take any extremely wet loads to the elevator. The elevator has a limit on moisture (14.5%) and frowns upon wet loads. If the moisture is too high they can decline dumping our trucks. Our machines show the average moisture which helps our blending tasks.

Initially our farmer wanted us to adhere to a 13.5% moisture percentage; but with imminent storms coming our way, he prefers to get as much crop harvested as possible before rain strikes again. I don’t blame him as yields are averaging from 55 to 60 bu./ac. while test weights are running from 59 to 60. A nice crop for the Goodland area.

A truck returns from the elevator. Long hauls and a pretty good yield have our truckers running.

Our formation in the field.

Trucks had a difficult time keeping up with our combines today.

All Aboard Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and Syngenta. Jada Bulgin can be reached at jada@allaboardharvest.com.