30 Jul Laura: Big skies aren’t just for Montana

Southeastern Colorado: There was a Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl on PBS a few years back. They described this part of the world as “no man’s land.” It is a sparsely populated part of the country where only the toughest survive. Extreme weather conditions can make for a feast or famine yield situation depending on which side the pendulum swings. With all that being said, it is absolutely one of my favorite stops of the run.

Montana is known as big sky country and that is an accurate description. However, I would argue southeastern Colorado is equally so. I can try to use words to describe it, but its more of a feeling a person has to experience. There is something a little wild and freeing for one’s soul to be in such big country. It gives me a peace that’s hard to relay.

Our time in southeast Colorado was marked with some days of great cutting, some humid starts, some rain, and some sunny days. Basically, like much of the season, it was a buffet of all the weather things and caused us to be split again to cover acres. Final totals aren’t dialed in, but a preliminary guess from one of the crew members says yields were likely around 25 bushels per acre on some of the fields. Don’t let that number fool you. The farmers in this area work hard to have top notch crops and operations. Even though they do their part, Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate. However, we can be thankful that a crop was made after such a dry start earlier in the season.

Taking photos out here puts me in my happy place.

Night time at the bins. 

Chris doing his thing. 

The skies were alive on this evening. 

Darcy about to pick up the next load. 

Little man watching the crew run. 

Laura Haffner can be reached at laura@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.