22 Aug Christy: Transitioning to our last stop

One of the last loaded combines heading up the hill out of Fort Benton.

Fort Benton, Montana—We started the week seeing most of the crew off to Plentywood, Montana, while keeping only three combines here to finish up chick peas, lentils, and flax. All three crops were low yielding, and a little tough to cut due to weed issues. A lot of the weed issues stem from the lack of moisture that was needed for pre-emergents to work. It is amazing to see though how far technology has come by watching how the draper heads flex to the shape of the ground so we can shave every last plant off the ground, catching as many of the pods as possible.

You can see how the headers really flex to cover the ground.

The operators really have to get close to the ground to catch every pod on chick peas.

Over in Plentywood, Gary cut field peas averaging 50 bushels per acre. I’m pretty sure that’s the best peas we’ve seen so far this year. Durum and lentils are next up on the list for this area. We’ll try to keep busy here until all machines are needed in North Dakota.

This weekend Gary also went ahead and brought some machines over to Ray, North Dakota, for our last stop on the wheat harvest. There will be a little bit of field peas ready now, and it could still be a bit before any durum is ready. Hopefully we’ll stay busy by Plentywood to fill in this gap between jobs.

Our crew is also going through a transition right now with college students needing to make it home to start school, and their replacements starting to arrive. I picked up one new crew member in Great Falls this week from New York. Through the end of this month, we’ll start seeing more come in as well to fill in all the spaces that are opening up. A big thank you to our college kids, they have all been great additions to our crew. I just wish they could take a semester off and stay the whole season. But that is an expectation that is a bit selfish and definitely not realistic. We hope all the best for these young guys, and a great school year as well.

With Paul, Zoey and I being the only ones left here to settle up before moving to Plentywood, we took a little family time before Zoey and I go home. There just happened to be some dirt track races in Great Falls we were lucky enough to catch. We also scooted over to Helena to check out a sapphire mine and do a little searching for our own. We didn’t end up having any luck with sapphires but found a few agates that were pretty.

Zoey and I at the dirt track races in Great Falls.

Zoey searching for sapphires in Helena.

Meeting with our customers made me a bit sad. We love all our farmers and talking with them about how devastating the droughts have been makes me really hope and pray for some rain. As I know I keep saying, it is needed so badly not only for crops, but for livestock, reservoirs, and more. It has a great impact on everything.

It’s really remarkable this year how quickly harvest has gone. It’s hard to believe that school is starting next week and I have to go home. With North Dakota running later this year, I’ll go ahead and plan to come up for Labor Day weekend, and not expect to be bringing the camper back with me.

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

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