13 Dec Sherry: The 2024 harvest run is complete

Bishop, Texas — Hi y’all! We began our harvest in mid-May, harvesting wheat. We ended our harvest on Dec. 1, picking cotton. This is a normal harvest run for us. However, not all of our seasons work out this way. Sometimes we end in October, and sometimes we end in February. It always depends on the weather.

I say we have completed the season, but what I really mean to say is that we have finished picking cotton. We still have several loads of cotton bales to haul to the cotton gin. We can haul eight bales on a trailer. Our travel time to the cotton gin is about six hours roundtrip. Each truck can only haul two loads a day, so this takes some time to get all the cotton bales to the cotton gin. We hope to have them all hauled to the cotton gin before Christmas.

While Brian is hauling the cotton bales, the kids and I are cleaning up the cotton pickers. We blow off all the dirt and leaves with the air compressor. What the air compressor leaves behind we pull off by hand. Each row is cleaned out by hand, as well.

This season we had more combine acres than cotton acres, which is a rarity, but not surprising due to the cost to grow cotton. Nonetheless, we will take it.

We also had a few firsts this harvest season. For instance, this was the first season for our number 3, Wesson, to run a cotton picker. He normally runs the grain buggy or bale mover. However, he has graduated to cotton picker operater. He was excited about the promotion. Another first is that we were able to view the northern lights back in early October, and we caught a glimpse of the comet in mid-October. It was also the first time that we harvested a crop in the state of Colorado. We also purchased our hard-working 16-year-old twins, Wailynn and Wyatt, their first pickup truck. Needless to say, they were thrilled!

Looking back on this season, it seems to me that it all ran pretty well. The weather was pretty cooperative, and we had minimal breakdowns.

Our 2024 season has been a wonderful season. We were able to catch up with old friends and meet several new ones, too. We are delighted that we are able to wrap up our 29th season harvesting crops that feed and clothe the world, and we are extremely excited to be celebrating our 30th year harvesting these same crops in 2025! We hope you will join us next year!

Wishing y’all a Merry Christmas and Happy Ner Year!

—Zimmerman Farms