24 Jun Jada: Meet Johann a crew member of Hoffman Harvesting
Hailing from Pretoria, South Africa, Johann is a 25 year-old who is on his third harvest run with us. While you can typically see him behind the wheel of the tractor, Johann is more than just a grain cart operator. He is a jack-of-all trades- meaning he knows how to run all our equipment and remembers where fields are located from previous years of working with us. His knowledge of how we do things is a really big help, especially when we have new members on the crew. When we are at home, he is also good help in the shop.
Johann first decided to go on harvest out of curiosity. He says he wanted to see how people around here harvest. He also wanted the experience. Being in a field and doing not only what he enjoys but what he is good at is why he continues to come back. Johann especially enjoys seeing the people we cut for each year and focuses on doing a good job. He also likes seeing different places and grilling out. We call him Chef Johann as he is the man behind the grill on rainy days and when we aren’t in the field.
He says South African agriculture is basically the same as here but they don’t have the big equipment. Farmers still plow the soil and do things the old fashioned way. When Johann is here he misses eating lamb from South Africa. We do not have many opportunities to buy lambs meat where we cut or in South Dakota. When we do, it is really expensive and doesn’t taste as good as it does at home. Johan also misses his family and friends.
If we went to visit Johann in Pretoria, he says there are a lot of fun places to see. The city has a lot of museums including the Voortrecker Monument which is an old Afrikaner building. There are also a lot of places to hike.
Fun Fact: Our Chihuahua Malibu was a baby the first year Johan went on harvest with us. He and the other guys on the crew would put her in their cup holder when she rode in the equipment with them.
Read about other crew members Andreas, Roly, Oak, James, and Callum.
Jada can be reached at jada@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2011 is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.
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