11 Aug Jada: A wonderful way to end our fortieth wheat harvest

Our combines are rocking in Rock Lake. Okay, so I wouldn’t necessarily say we are rocking, but we are harvesting. Wheat yields are ranging from the 40’s to high 50’s while protein is at 12 -14% and test weights are anywhere 60 – 63.  Luckily, we are currently dumping in bins because the moisture is at 16 to 17%.

Speaking of moisture, I took a look at the weather/ Doppler on my phone and it is very possible we will get rained out again today. There are also chances of rain almost every day next week. Fun Fact: Two years ago we were rained out at this stop for an entire month collectively. If you ask our farmer Steve, he will say we bring rain every time we arrive. Since the pace of our harvest slows down here, we call Rock Lake our Cancun without the beach, palm trees and a lot of times even the sun. Despite this fact, we enjoy harvesting here and welcome the slow work pace as a good way to finish off Hoffman Harvesting’s fortieth wheat harvest.

The 2012 harvest season took off at a pace any of the summer Olympics’ coaches would be proud of. While we were continuously surprised by the earliness of this year’s harvest, it has been an overall good year for farmers. The yields and quality of wheat were good despite drought problems that stretched throughout the Central Plains. It is hard to believe that wheat harvest is wrapping up which means it’s also time to say goodbye to reporting on this season’s wheat harvest as well.

While wheat is the reason for what we are doing; you, the readers of this blog and our sponsors are the reason we are able to share what we do. Agriculture is often a misunderstood industry. While custom harvesting is just a small portion of this industry, I am proud to be able to be a part of this blog to share what we do. I want to take the time to thank our sponsors- Syngenta, High Plains Journal and all our contributing sponsors and supporters- for enabling us to show what we love to do so much. A special thanks to the staff at High Plains Journal for all their behind the scenes work they do on the All Aboard Harvest- you guys are great! Also, thanks to our audience for comments, emails and just taking the time to check out our posts. We appreciate everyone who makes this blog possible!

The 2012 Hoffman Harvesting crew Front: Leon, Montana, Kaidence, Theo, Dave. Back: Oak, Bux, Johnny, and Callum.

Clouds move in but we escape the rain.

The sun tries to peep through the clouds.

Some canola that was swathed and will be harvested with a pick-up header.

Tom joins our team late in the year. That is always hard to do but we are glad to have him here and are excited to get to know this new member of our team who hails from England.

Oaks helps out Tom in the combine. We always say there is a difference between being able to run a combine and operate one. Unfortunately, the new technology in our machines makes the task of learning even more difficult. In fact, even experienced combiners take a while to catch on to the new technology if they haven’t been exposed to it before.

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