My name is Brian Jones of Greenfield, Iowa, and I am a second-generation farmer and wheat harvester. I was born and raised on a family farm about 50 miles southwest of Des Moines in the rolling hills of southwest Iowa. During the tough financial times for farmers in the 1980s, my father, Glen Jones, and grandpa, George Rahn, began looking for additional income to keep financially viable during the farm crisis.
With combines being such expensive investments, we were inspired by George’s brother, who ran a custom harvesting crew, to load up our own equipment and head to Oklahoma. From knocking on farmers’ doors randomly in the countryside to referrals from locals, one job led to another that moved us northward one state at a time. As they say, the rest is history, and 2024 will be the 42nd anniversary of Jones Harvesting.
Our crew is completely a family operation. My father and mother, Vernelle, farm in southwest Iowa with me, my sister, Brenda, and her husband, Cameron Hamer. Brenda and Cameron have four young boys, and all nine of us spend the summer working together harvesting. David Rahn now operates the Rahn family farm near Butterfield, Minnesota. David joins us with his equipment each summer, continuing the Jones-Rahn Harvesting legacy.
Back in Iowa, the Jones and Hamer families work together raising corn, soybeans and hay along with running a cow-calf herd. We also do some customer farming and harvesting locally. With spring planting finished and the cows turned out to pasture, we load up equipment, typically in early June, and head to our first stop in central Oklahoma, followed by two stops in southwest Kansas, western Nebraska, central South Dakota and southern North Dakota.
After harvesting the amber waves of grain on the plains for more than four decades, it’s hard to not look back and consider all that has changed over the years. Yet one thing has remained the same, our love for the harvest. It’s been quite the adventure, and we look forward to sharing the untold stories of the Great American Wheat Harvest. If you’ve always wanted to virtually and vicariously live the life of a harvester, grab your reading glasses and prepare to get lost in the stories of harvest straight from the field. They’re guaranteed to be filled with plenty of plot twists and turns to keep you guessing. It’s bound to be a real page turner!
