15 Jul Steph: To Nebraska we go

After two weeks in St. Francis, Osowski Ag Service is ready to hit the road again and head to our 5th stop on our harvest journey: Big Springs, Neb. We had one patch of green wheat we were waiting on for a couple days that would complete our harvest here. Around 4pm Saturday afternoon, our New Holland hit the field and finished up the  50 acre piece with ease in a couple hours. The yields have suffered here, just like most places on the harvest trail. All 3 of our farmers here did about the same, 20-25 bushels per acre, which is what they anticipated. Test weights were around 60 pounds. And a glorious thing happened come evening. Storm clouds rolled in and St. Francis finally got a rain.

Our farmer Bob is a certified organic farmer. This means that he plants all of his dry land crops without the use of any chemicals or fertilizer. There are a couple terms to become more familiar with when harvesting for an organic farmer:

purge- This meant that before we were able to combine his wheat, we had to run 50 bushels through the combine so no dust or grain from the previous wheat we had harvested would mix in with his.

buffer- If there was a side of our farmer’s field that was right next to someone else’s field, we would leave a 30 foot strip on that edge for the reasons of cross pollination (over spray of fertilizer or chemical, etc.). We would then cut the buffer later and bring it to town separate from the rest of the field.

We are planning on bringing our combine up to Big Springs today and then our header, grain cart and trailer house tomorrow. Kansas harvest – check!

Quote of the Day: ” I slept like a baby last night. I woke up every 2 hours and cried.”

Cleaning out the New Holland. Oats were a little too wet.

Brandon and Steph, cleaning out the combine.

Brandon and I, all covered in oat chaff. We decided it was itchier than wheat chaff.

Dad, giving Brandon a hand… ha ha!

The first time our New Holland has ever seen oats.

Not as pretty as wheat but a cool change of scenery.

Combining right on the border.

Our New Holland, all ready to be loaded up and head to Nebraska.

Brandon and I decided to name our combine Evelyn. It seemed fitting for some reason.

Some grain bins by where we park our equipment.

Picture perfect farmyard.

A beautiful and well-deserved rain.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and Syngenta. You can contact Stephanie at stephanie@allaboardharvest.com.