07 Jun Janel: Harvest begins again

Southwest Oklahoma–I left for harvest on May 18 and arrived in southwest Oklahoma on May 19. We parked the campers and unloaded the equipment in 107-degree heat.  Then we went to the field and sampled right away and the grain wasn’t quite dry enough yet. It seems like this time of year always sneaks up on me so quickly. It’s time to cut wheat and harvest begins again. On May 22 we got to cutting wheat and cut late that night and I really enjoy that sometimes. It brings back lots and lots and lots of memories of getting out of school for summer and joining the crew on wheat harvest and getting to run combine all day and half the night a lot of times.

The wheat that I have cut so far has been making 15 to 25 bushels per acre. The test weights have been 62 to 63 pounds per bushel. While cutting, the combines make a lot of dust. The wheat was planted in the dust and grew in the dust due to a lack of rainfall. I’ve looked at more fields we will be cutting and I think we’ll be finding some higher yielding wheat. Last year the wheat crop was good here and this year it’s lacking due to the drought. Harvest yields can demonstrate such extremes in what Mother Nature can do year to year.

We had a light rain today, May 23, and are expecting rain tonight and tomorrow. We’ve had some cooler days with highs in the 70s and lots of wind. After tomorrow it’s supposed to warm up again into the 90s and 100s and I’m sure we’ll be busy cutting wheat until we are done here. I’m not for sure where we are going next. We’ve cut wheat in the Weatherford, Oklahoma, area for the past 30 years but our main customer there isn’t farming anymore. We’ll probably have to go knocking on some doors to find work.

We brought eight combines and five tractor grain carts down here. We were supposed to leave for harvest with all new combines but left with three of our used combines because three of our new ones are still at the John Deere combine factory. We’ll probably be getting those sometime in June.

Janel can be reached at janel@allaboardharvest.com.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest is brought to you by ITC Holdings, CASE IH, Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, US Custom Harvesters Inc., Unverferth Mfg. Co. Inc., Lumivia CPL by Corteva Agriscience, Kramer Seed Farms, and High Plains Journal.

The first trip south I hauled my new John Deere s780 combine and MacDon FD240 header. That was on May 14 and we had a good trip.

A new tractor about to be loaded up and hauled down south for wheat harvest.

I love the smell of a new tractor cab.

The second trip south I hauled this s770 combine and MacDon FD240 header.

Equipment getting loaded up and ready to go south for wheat harvest.

I left for wheat harvest on May 18 and here I was parked for the night in southern Kansas. We had another good trip down south. The one thing I don’t like about hauling wide loads is meeting traffic on a bridge. We need extra space and appreciate driver’s being courteous.

All ready to cut wheat.

Back in the combine seat cutting wheat.

I had a full hopper in the field May 22. This wheat made 25 bushels per acre. I love the new combine and header.

A combine hopper full of wheat. This wheat was 11% moisture. It was dry.

Cutting wheat on the Texas–Oklahoma border on May 22.

I can see my combine shadow. It’s my favorite time of day. I love cutting nice flat fields too.

My view from the combine cab. Those are corn stalks in the wheat. I can’t believe how much corn is planted down here.

Cutting wheat.

Burning the midnight oil.

Unloading wheat on the truck and then shutting down for the night.

This was an 80-acre field and we had it cut in an hour and 36 minutes.

Maintenance work at daylight. This truck and trailer had some lights quit working the night before. We replaced a fuse and they worked again.

I was moving to another field and the rain drops began.

We got rained out so we were on our way in to town and passed by JC’s combines in the field.

A Schemper Harvesting truck going to unload a load of wheat at the elevator. I had just unloaded a load of wheat and was waiting to get back on the scale to weigh out.

Unloading wheat in the elevator in southwest Oklahoma.

Janel Schemper can be reached at janel@allaboardharvest.com.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest is brought to you by ITC Holdings, CASE IH, Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, US Custom Harvesters Inc., Unverferth Mfg. Co. Inc., Lumivia CPL by Corteva Agriscience, Kramer Seed Farms, and High Plains Journal.