12 Jul Christy: Rain Delays

Brewster, Kansas — We are still trying to finish combining here in Kansas, but the rain has delayed us quite a bit this week. Yields are really great here. Paul did an irrigated pivot that reached 120 bushels per acre. It’s the best wheat Paul has seen in Kansas. Otherwise, dryland wheat has averaged anywhere between 35 to 75 bushels per acre. This has been a really great stop so far.

On the other hand, the weather hasn’t been cooperating. We have had a lot of rain the last few days, and we haven’t been able to combine. After yesterday’s rainfall, it isn’t looking like we’ll be turning any wheels today either. The storms haven’t been really bad with hail or damaging winds, but it turns the dirt roads treacherous. We’ve had a truck and pickup get stuck trying to escape from the field after the rain hit. Thankfully, after today, the forecast looks great, hot and dry for the next week.

Patrick joined Gary’s crew up in Paxton, Nebraska, and they have been combining wheat north and south of town. It looks like everywhere around Paxton has been averaging about the same, between 60 to 70 bushels per acre. It’s a great crop for the area.

They have also seen some rain delays in Nebraska, but there’s very little left before they’ll finish up and start preparing for the move to Montana. Hopefully, we’ll get some equipment moved out there before the main move to make things a little easier.

We celebrated the Fourth of July this last week. Due to rain, we had the day off and spent it taking Zoey to the water park in Colby and grilling out. It was a little bit of a bummer that we were not with our whole crew for the holiday, but it was still a nice break from our busy harvest schedule this year. Hope everyone enjoyed a happy and safe Fourth of July.

We still have quite a few acres to cover here by Brewster, but hopefully we’ll get finished here before the end of the week so we can get ready to move to Montana. It sounds like Montana has had a lot of rain, and everything looks nice and green. I know they did get some hail that damaged some acres, but for the most part I think things sound really good out there. We’ll be seeing it here soon.

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.