14 Aug Christy: Best wheat yet

Fort Benton, Montana — Wow, we have seen great wheat in Montana this year! Yields are really great so far, averaging between 80 and 108 bushels per acre. The fields are gold and gorgeous, and our trucks are struggling to keep up.

The week before we came up this way, the weather started really heating up, but when we arrived, Montana saved two of the hottest days for us. We hit 104 and 101 two days in a row. It was unforgivingly scorching, but I think it was helpful to ripen the wheat and keep us moving through acres.

We started cutting just about a week ago. The first field to go was in the Highwood area, and it averaged 90 bushels per acre. One morning out, Owen, one of our truck drivers, caught sight of a rattler. Thankfully, no one was bitten, but you definitely have to be aware they are around. This field was the only field toward Highwood to be ready for a couple of days, so we moved all our machines over by Carter to run on what was dry. Carter is also averaging the same, between 85 and 90 bushels per acre.

Yesterday, Cameron’s crew was working on a large field just south of Fort Benton that had seen a little hail in the lower portion of the field. On top, where there wasn’t any hail damage, averaged 108 bushels per acre. The farmer told Cameron that on a typical year, the bottom does better than the top, so if the bottom hadn’t gotten hail, it probably would have done about 130 bushels per acre. That’s absolutely remarkable. I should probably also mention this is all dryland wheat, and none of it is irrigated. I asked Cameron if this is the best wheat he’s ever cut. He said it was close, but he had seen similar in Carter before. If the bottom had hit 130, it would have been, he said.

The only downside to these great yields is that the protein has not been good, so much so, that at the elevator, they are docking quite a bit for it. One farmer told me that the dockage puts the price of wheat below the price of corn. It’s a hard blow for what should be a banner crop year, but on the bright side, it is still a fantastic crop and something to be so proud of to have raised.

So far we’ve only been doing winter wheat, and we finished all the winter wheat by Carter. We’ll head back over to Carter when spring wheat is ready. We’re still working on winter wheat by Highwood, and we will put some machines on field peas and lentils today. I’m curious to see if the peas and lentils will yield high like the wheat has.

Just as we’ve been talking about all year, things are moving really fast. I know we will have some acres ready in North Dakota by next weekend, and we’ll need to send a crew out that way. The school year is also creeping closer, and my time in field will end here in about three weeks. It’s hard to believe that time has passed that quickly.

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.