28 Jul Christy: Long travels to beautiful Montana

(Photo by Dillon Grutkoski.)

This week on harvest has been another busy one. Gary’s group by Paxton, Nebraska, is completing dryland wheat averaging about 70 to 80 bushels per acre and irrigated wheat doing about 110 bushels per acre. It’s slow moving, but it’s a good crop in that area.

Paul’s group started out in Tribune, Kansas. The 5 inches of rain we received in the field towards the end didn’t help, and made for a muddy mess trying to get equipment out of the field. Carts were fully loaded and made some tracks getting out. There just wasn’t any fair warning to the amount of rain we saw.

Once we finished in Tribune, we started our trip to Montana. I had a few camper issues that held us up to start. Then thirty miles down the road we had to stop and wash out a radiator on truck #6. It was a little frustrating to only make it 200 miles up the road the first day to Ogallala, Nebraska. Zoey didn’t mind too much, she got to see her grandma and grandpa quick before we took off again the next morning.

Our second day of traveling saw a couple blown tires, and more traffic than I ever remember encountering moving out that way. We stopped and stayed in Broadus, Montana.

Before we took off for our last stretch to Fort Benton, the guys were busy changing any and all iffy looking tires to help avoid issues. Whereas that was helpful in that department, it didn’t help when our service truck decided it wanted to over heat right outside of Lewistown. I didn’t mind, I was tired and hopped into Paul’s sleeper with Zoey to take a little power nap while he sorted the service truck out. I felt a little bad for sneaking a sleep in when Paul was busy figuring things out, but I sure was in better shape to finish our journey. After arriving late evening, we parked everything, got a bite to eat, and called it a day.

Bright and early the guys got everything unloaded and ready to cut. We brought five machines up to start, and spent the first day cutting a 470-acre field of peas. They averaged about 15 bushels per acre. The dry, hot weather didn’t help yields in this field. It was really dusty and hazy out while cutting.

Today we split our machines three ways to start some wheat by Carter, camelina oil by Highwood, and winter wheat a little closer to Fort Benton. The first field of winter wheat by Carter is averaging around 60 to 70 bushels per acre. It’s slow going, and one of our combine operators told me they’re having trouble keeping the harvest track down. Maybe it’s due to the variety.

Hopefully Gary and Rhonada will be able to join us soon in Montana. It’s dry, and moisture is running low. I have a feeling when everyone is here, we will be going strong for the next few weeks. I’ll have better pictures soon to show what it looks like out here once I get caught up after our long move.

Christy Paplow can be reached at christy@allaboardharvest.com.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest is sponsored by Case IH, Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc., BASF, Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, Gleaner, ITC, Westbred, Huskie, Western Equipment, US Custom Harvesters, and High Plains Journal.