Christy: And We’re Off!

Our crew took off from the home farm on Mother’s Day. We’ve had a lot of rain, but you wouldn’t know it judging from the dust.

Worthington, MN — Mother’s Day looked a little different this year than last year for us. Our crew took off with the last bit of equipment and campers to head to Texas. Crops aren’t quite ready, but U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc. is putting on Safety Day this Thursday, and we want our crew to be present. There’s always a lot of valuable information and great presentations to attend.

Over the last month, we have been steadily gaining crew members, collecting all the new equipment, and getting everything ready to move to south. Our new combines arrived early, and headers made it to the shop in time to be set up and ready to go. Trucks have been inspected and fixed as well as trucks can be fixed, and all paperwork has been updated. Some repairs were made to campers, and all but one crew camper was ready to hit the road when everyone took off. 

Headers are lined up in the yard, ready to be set up.
Trucks have been polished, shined, and checked for any issues.
Campers have had repairs and a little cosmetic work to look their best.

I’m really excited for our crew this year. We decided after hiring a female trucker last year that we could add a few more girls to the mix. Anna and Katie come to us on J1 visas from England. It is wonderful to see women in agriculture, and especially these two talented women. There’s not a thing they aren’t willing to work on or any job they wouldn’t try out. They certainly have Zoey’s vote, and she already looks up to them. Both have already studied and passed their Commercial Driver’s License exams and are fully licensed to drive trucks here in the United States. It’s an excellent accomplishment, and I expect to see a lot of great things from these two women this year. We will have one more gal join the crew down in Texas, and I’m looking forward to meeting her, too. 

Anna and Katie pose with Zoey at the PBR Rodeo. A few crew members came in time to join us.
We really enjoy catching bull riding in Sioux Falls, and I’m glad we could bring some of our crew to experience it, too.

We also have five other fellows from Europe who are here on J1 Visas. One has yet to join us, and the others have also worked steadily on gaining their CDLs. We haven’t gotten everyone fully licensed yet as everyone didn’t arrive as early as needed, but we’ll continue the process as time permits us trips home to finish testing. 

Outside of our J1 trainees, we have five returning crewmembers, and a few new members from all over the United States. We’ll get to know everyone well here soon, but as far as I can tell, it’s a great start. 

I haven’t been south to get a look for myself how crops look in Texas, but I know there’s been plenty of rain, and fields are pretty wet. It looks like rain in the forecast for later this week. Then it’s going to turn up into the 90s for next week. Hopefully, high temps will begin to dry things up, and maybe we’ll get rolling sometime soon. Reports from our farmers during winter sounded like they had good moisture and ideal conditions for a good crop, so I hope fields produce well. 

At this point in time, Zoey and I are the last left home to finish her schooling. I’m working on finishing up the last few chores around home, and I’ll take Zoey out of school a couple of days early so we can catch up to the crew. 

We have all the makings for a great year, and I’m really anxious to get there. I wish all harvesters/farmers easy trips on the road and a great season!

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