04 Sep Janel: I love cutting wheat

One word to describe wheat harvest 2023 would be delayed. We were delayed by wet weather in Oklahoma and Kansas. I’ve been to five harvest stops this summer and it has rained everywhere we went. We were down south much longer than usual due to the weather conditions. We were still cutting wheat in western Nebraska the first week of August. That’s late and unusual.

The north country has been very busy especially for our crew that went to Montana. The yields were excellent and conditions good so they were busier than ever while they were there cutting winter wheat, spring wheat, durum and chickpeas. All eight combines are in North Dakota now and staying busy cutting good crops.

There were good yields almost everywhere I harvested. Southwest Oklahoma had some excellent yields. They got the early rains and we had decent wheat to cut. Some of it made in the 70s and 80s. Western Kansas had excellent irrigated wheat yielding 84 to 102 bushels. Western Nebraska had nice wheat too. Overall, we’ve been busy.

As far as operating the combine full-time I’m totally old school! I do not listen to the music radio at all. I love listening to the combine, the two-way radio and enjoy my quiet time. I do my thinking while operating the combine.

One of the greatest things about our harvest crew are the meals. We have home cooked meals all the time either at the camper or in the field. Either way they’re always excellent and nobody goes to bed hungry on this crew! The one meal that is always highly complimented is lasagna, garlic bread and green beans. My homemade vanilla ice cream is also a favorite dessert that’s requested often!

I’m currently in North Dakota cutting canola. I love it here! It’s always been my favorite. The fields are nice to cut and the scenery is very pretty. I love the cooler mornings and evenings. It’s the last of the wheat harvest and always feels like an accomplishment but I never want wheat harvest to end! I love cutting wheat! In September we will travel back south to Nebraska for fall harvest. We’ll cut soybeans and pick corn until about Thanksgiving time.

Thank you to all of our customers. We appreciate you and always hope for the very best. We also thank and appreciate our employees. Thank you to the John Deere Harvest Support and MacDon Harvest Support. Both are very valuable to our operation. Thank you to the AAWH sponsors. I appreciate all of the followers support online via the AAWH blog, Facebook page and emails. It’s all amazing! Thank you!

Janel can be reached at janel@allaboardharvest.com.

All Aboard Wheat Harvest is brought to you by Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc., High Plains Journal, New Holland, ITC Holdings Corp, U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc., Kramer Seed Farms and Lumivia Insecticide Treatment by Corteva Agriscience.