21 May Laura: Harvesting wheat and adventures

I love travel. I was always an old soul with a case of wanderlust. I dreamed of exploring the world, seeing new places and meeting new people. I never dreamed I would fulfill some of those desires through the world of custom harvesting. 

To those I haven’t met my name is Laura Boroughs-Haffner, co-owner of High Plains Harvesting. I’m glad you’ve joined the All Aboard Wheat Harvest family. To seasoned AAWH followers, welcome back. I’m glad we’re sharing this space for another season.  

Ryan, a farm kid from Park, Kansas, spent many summers vacations of his teens and early twenties staring out the windshields of trucks and combines. Unknowingly at the time, I was about two hours south spending my high school summers staring out the window of a tractor, mowing ditches for the Gray County Road Department. We didn’t know it at the time, but uniquely different backgrounds and experiences were shaping us for what was to come.  

We wouldn’t meet until after college when we were both working in corporate America in the agriculture sector, though with different companies. In time, we would get our feet wet with production agriculture as we took over his family’s farm as fourth-generation farmers. I would later change to education as he continued to work his corporate job, but never did I dream we would own a custom harvesting business. Sometimes God has other plans, and as a result, I will need to update my resume this year to include twelve seasons with High Plains Harvesting. 

Our harvest run takes us across the beautiful Great Plains of rural America. We currently anticipate following a route from Texas to the Canadian border with stops also in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Montana. It is a huge leap of faith to lay everything on the line to chase wheat, but we are geared up for the challenge of Harvest 2023.  

We don’t embark on this journey alone. We have two children that travel with us whom I affectionately refer to in the blog as Little Man and Lady A. We also have a team of both newbies and HPH veterans who hail from America, Australia, England, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, and South Africa. The world comes to us and is such a great melting pot of people, personalities, and cultures.  

Part of the adventure is the opportunity to meet so many folks across America’s heartland. We take harvest extremely seriously and are grateful to our faithful customers who allow us to partner with them and their farming endeavors each year. In addition to the relationships we’ve formed with our farm families, we also look forward to seeing those along the trail who support the harvest. This includes, but isn’t limited to, those who work at elevators, equipment dealerships, harvest support, grocery stores, libraries, and more.  

Most of our focus will be in the field. However, along the way, we certainly gain what will become lifelong lessons and memories. No matter how many seasons a person has under their belt, there are new skills to learn and challenges to overcome. Bucket list items will be obtained like national parks, rodeos, and experiences yet to be dreamed. And if history is any indication, some of the best times will simply be found sitting around the grill after a long day laughing and exchanging stories.   

We are days away from harvesting grain this season, but we also can’t wait to harvest new adventures. High Plains Harvesting looks forward to sharing these stories with you. Thanks for being along for the ride. 

Laura Haffner can be reached at laura@allaboardharvest.com.