22 Sep Christy: Fall harvest is here, ready or not

My name is Christy Paplow, with Paplow Harvesting & Trucking out of Worthington, Minnesota. I haven’t been a harvester as long as my husband and his family, yet I’ve put in a few years now—14 to be exact—and love sharing what we do as harvesters. This business is our way of life. I never imagined this for my life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am proud to be a part of harvesting crops that help feed our world.

My job consists of bringing meals to the field, two a day usually, running for parts, and any additional support. I also care for paperwork, and run all the usual activities for our school-age daughter and 2-year-old pup, Penny. Yes—Penny has activities, too. They might be mouse catching and making sure she gets all the attention from our crew, but it’s also hard work.

This fall is gearing up to be a great harvest. Crops look awesome around home, and will tell us how well they will be as we work through them. We will run 10 Case IH 8250s in soybeans, and run eight of the same machines in corn. We’re really thankful for all the acres we have to harvest, and look forward to diving in more to see how crops do.

Weather conditions this fall have been somewhat favorable. Rains hit at the right time to produce what appear to be good crops. We are dry, though. There is rain in the near future and I believe after this rain, fall harvest will be in full swing.

Fall started early here in Minnesota. We have been cutting beans on and off for the last week and a half around Round Lake, Minnesota. We started with one combine, and as crews have finished elsewhere, we are now running three in soybeans.

The beans are combining well after our farmer decided to spray his early beans. Desiccating proved to be a great option as it allowed the plants to dry more evenly and gave us an advantage to combine a field all at the same time, instead of leaving wet sections and working around green spots. I haven’t heard much on yield yet at this time, but there’s more to come soon.

We still have one crew working to finish in North Dakota, and one crew trying to get started on beans by Elkton, South Dakota- I hope the wet mornings with dew and fog will subside. After the rains due this weekend, I believe everyone will be going in these two areas as quickly as they can. Corn will be on our horizon as soon as beans are done – maybe before.

It will be an exciting fall. I think it might also be a wet fall. We saw so many rains in our southern run. It didn’t follow us into Montana, but North Dakota saw rain breaks, and I think we might have the same during soybeans and corn. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

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