14 Jun Christy: A very welcome slow rainy week

Combining by Walters, Oklahoma. This was a nice field to cut.

Wichita Falls, Texas–We’ve moved most all of our machines up into Oklahoma but decided to keep all the campers parked in Wichita Falls, Texas, for the impending rain. And rain it did. Our crew by Frederick, Oklahoma, saw three inches dumped pretty rapidly last week, an inch where we have a crew working by Walters, Oklahoma, and again another inch by our one machine still finishing up in Texas. The rain has delayed us for the last three days, but we’re hoping if we don’t get back thrashing today that we will tomorrow.

Three machines finishing up a field by Walters, Oklahoma. You can see the sky is really starting to cloud up.

Getting the last load of wheat loaded and to the elevator.

I was ready for a rain delay. With the crews split between Oklahoma and Texas, meal delivery is taking a while and keeping up with all these guys has kept me busy. Paul’s parents should be able to finish wrapping things up around home and head out this way later next week. I will be happy for the help.

It never seems to fail that as soon as we arrive down here to begin cutting, the rain settles in. This year isn’t as bad as last year where we didn’t turn a wheel for two weeks after getting to Texas. Though this rain has been very much needed.

Getting ready to take heads off to move fields. Again, you can see that the rain is getting closer.

As far as our schedule goes, we seem to be right in line for where we should be at this time. We’ll need to send a crew up to Kingfisher, Oklahoma, here in the next day or so. With 100 acres left here in Texas to clean up, we should start moving all campers into Oklahoma soon.

Penny has been getting acclimated to harvest life and is doing great. I was pretty concerned at first because she seemed to struggle with wearing a harness and leash. We don’t have to use one at home on the farm and I failed to train her with it from the beginning, but she’s gotten used to it now. She’s a great pickup rider and so far hasn’t gotten into anyone’s lunch yet on trips to the field.

Penny helping deliver lunch to the field.

As we’ve moved farther up north, we’ve seen a progression in the wheat crops. Where we saw 13 to 27 bushel wheat to start in Texas, we’ve gotten into some better wheat that’s averaging closer to a consistent 25 bushel an acre average. It’s still below average for a normal crop here, but it’s good to see that conditions are improving as we move north. We’re lucky we have acres to cover, and really blessed that our farmers will keep us on with the price of fuel and low crop averages. I hope Texas and Oklahoma see more rain for next year’s crop.

Since the rain kept us away from the field for a few days, it was great to spend some time checking out Wichita Falls Mounted Patrol’s Championship rodeo. It’s always a good time, and they have the most entertaining rodeo clown. We caught this rodeo last year as well.

Most of our crew that joined us for the rodeo.

This week was a slow one, but hopefully the clouds will clear and we can start putting in some hours.

Christy Paplow can be reached at christy@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.