22 Nov Christy: Winter Events

Ocheyedan, Iowa — It’s quiet around the yard these days, and we’re preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday. Between now and Christmas, there won’t be much going on, but later this winter we’ll have a couple of important events coming up.

The first will be the Lamma show in Birmingham, England. It’s a large farm show about three hours outside of London. Paul will travel to the show, where he will meet a lot of young people interested in possibly coming over to the states for the American harvest run. He has traveled to this show for the last couple of years and has met some really wonderful people interested in learning more about farming through a larger scale in the United States.

Next will be the U. S. Custom Harvesters, Inc.’s annual Harvest Convention. It is a fantastic event held in different places each year. This year we’ll be traveling close to Des Moines, Iowa. We’ve had convention at this venue before, and I’m excited to go. Zoey is excited to see her harvest buddies as well.

The event usually starts with a lot of informational meetings and tours of the John Deere facility. There will be speakers from all over covering several different topics. For instance, Aaron Davis, a retired Nebraska football player, who now works as an entrepreneur, consultant and coach will be speaking about balance, burnout, attitude and managing stress, something all harvesters face in our industry. I’m hoping to attend this one.

Children attending will have a fun trip to Top Golf, a visit to the Science Center and — Zoey’s favorite — Safety Day. Safety Day is packed with fun activities learning about the dangers in farming and recognizing how to spot hazardous situations and also how to avoid them. It’s valuable information as these kids are in the field for long periods of time during the summer and fall harvest seasons.

USCHI is also a proud sponsor of All Aboard Wheat and Fall Harvest.

After Lamma and Harvest Convention, it’ll already be time to start the hiring process for the 2025 Wheat Harvest Season. We’ll also be picking up new combines from Grand Island at some point, whenever they are ready. It sounds like we’ll also be trading a couple tractors off and picking new ones up in December in Racine, Wisconsin.

There’s lots to look forward to this winter, and I hope the weather treats us well during all our travels. We also want to wish everyone a very happy and safe Thanksgiving this year!