01 Jul Christy: Windy Conditons, Good Yields
Ulysses, Kansas — After finishing up by Pratt, Kansas, and Anthony, Kansas, all but our Perryton crew gathered up in Pratt to get ready to rearrange crews and send one crew toward Tribune, Kansas, and the other to help out a fellow harvester by Ulysses, Kansas.
Pratt was a much better stop this year than last with wheat averaging mostly in the 50s. It was good to see that wheat turned out better in this area than last year. Anthony also saw improvement over last year, and we’re really grateful they saw more rain. Hopefully the rains will continue to gain momentum in these areas over the year so they can see great crops next year.
Paul and I took a crew to Ulysses mid-week, where we will be doing straight cutting, as well as some stripper header work. Yields so far are between 50 and 60 bushels per acre. Test weights are a little lower than we’ve seen, around 59.7 and 60.3 pounds. Fields are a little uneven, and yield monitors are ranging really far. Some spots are tall, while others are short but still showing overall a great average. Machines are moving slowly through the field, but so far it’s been going really well.
Conditions in Pratt and Ulysses have been good with few rain chances, but winds have come up and have blown really hard for the last few days. It was a little challenging yesterday, and trucks had to strategically park to keep from losing their tarps. It is much quieter today, and hopefully the wind will decide to stay calm for a while.
Gary’s crew has just moved to Tribune, and they just started cutting yesterday. I haven’t heard yet how it’s looking, but guesses are that it will be better than originally thought. I really hope so because rain has still been scarce in western Kansas.
Zoey and I took a quick break from harvest while Paul and our crew ran to Colby after our stripper heads. There’s a fantastic museum here in Ulysses called the Historic Adobe Museum. It was incredible inside. It is beautifully designed and full of so much history. Zoey and I explored for a couple of hours, then found lunch at the Wagon Wheel Café, one town over in Hickok. This café is run by Mennonites, and all the food is made from scratch. Pies are their specialty, and we couldn’t leave without bringing one home to share with the crew. It did not disappoint, and I’m glad Zoey and I were able to sneak away for a morning to discover a small part of this historic town.
So far this year, equipment is running well, and yields have been very good. Conditions have shown less rain, so we can move through stops in a timely manner. We have a couple of more days of cutting here by Ulysses, and then it looks like we will head over to Colby, Kansas, to do some more stripper work.
Thank you to our 2024 All Aboard Wheat Harvest sponsors: High Plains Journal, Lumivia by Corteva Agriscience, Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc., Merit Auctions, Kramer Seed Farms,Shelbourne Reynolds, and U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc.
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