We hustled to get down south for wheat harvest because if the weather was right, we would've gone straight to the field. However, the weather has not been accommodating for getting wheat cut.
Janel Schemper – Schemper Harvesting
Janel Schemper
My name is Janel Schemper. I am a third generation custom harvester from Holdrege, Nebraska. I’ve been going on harvest my entire life. I am a combine operator and truck driver too. Our harvest run has always started in the month of May in the Frederick, Oklahoma area. We’ll journey up the central Midwest states, harvesting wheat fields in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota during the summer months. We’ll also harvest chickpeas, lentils and canola in the northern states on our harvest run. Our fall harvest takes place in both Kansas and Nebraska where we harvest corn and soybeans.
The 1950s was the start of my family business known as “Schemper Harvesting.” My grandpa, Jerry Schemper, experienced several drought years on the farm in northern Kansas and so that is when he went out on the road and made himself a living in the custom harvesting business. Please check out www.SchemperHarvesting.com for more details.
I joined my family harvest crew (mom and dad and three older siblings, Julie, JC and Jared) and started harvesting at just 5 months old. I can remember my dad, LaVern Schemper, running Gleaner combines in the 80s and then he switched to Case combines for a very short time and then in 1990 he became a John Deere customer. I got to grow up running John Deere combines. The combine cab was where I spent my time with my dad or siblings riding along with them and is when I learned all about operating a combine and running a business. Otherwise, my time was spent riding with my mom in a truck hauling many loads of grain to the elevators or grain storage sites. When we would move from location to location and traveled across the Great Plains states of America following the wheat belt I would ride with my dad in a truck hauling a combine and I always just felt better riding along with him. He had a way of being organized and professional and always made me proud and I was happy just being included in the business and working alongside him. At the time, I never thought I’d one day be the one to take the lead and be driving a truck and hauling a combine down the road. I have always enjoyed getting to be a part of the harvest crew! Some things just never change! ☺
By the time I was thirteen years old, I was operating a combine full-time during the summer months. That was 25+ years ago. After I finished my school years, I continued harvesting and our harvests typically last six to seven months each year. The years have gone by far too quickly. As a kid, I couldn’t wait to get out of school for the summer and go harvesting. I just always looked forward to the harvest. As soon as I weighed enough to keep the combine header going due to a micro switch in the combine seat, I was in the driver’s seat. However, the combine header would occasionally shut off during my teenage years due to my “light weight.” I would sometimes have to sit a coffee can full of nuts and bolts on my combine seat arm rest to add the necessary weight to keep it going and I made it work just fine.
Going on harvest has kept me super busy. Harvest for me is definitely the best way to grow up! I would not have had it any other way. I will always be in love with all of those amber waves of grain! It is always quite the sight! For the rest of my life, harvest time will always hold a special place in my heart. To my family it is not so much a job; it has become a tradition and a way of life that is now into the fourth generation. I will continue to support our family harvesting business in the growing generations.
The work ethic I have gained through each harvest season has been a great learning experience and I continue to learn and polish my skills every single day. I was taught early on that it takes “a lot” of work and a can-do attitude to be a harvester. Typically, the days in the field can be twelve to eighteen hours long and is what it often takes to get the job done. I learned responsibility at a young age. My dad taught me all about that. I learned to accept and do what was expected of me and to not ever complain about work but be glad for the opportunity and the ability to work. I have also learned about patience through the custom harvesting business. It sometimes seems that we are in the “hurry up and wait” business. We may push hard to get to our next job or field and get started cutting only to find that the crop is not ready yet or it’s happened before where a rain shower beat us to it. Sitting and waiting for grain to dry is sometimes what we have to do. Heat and wind are often what it takes to get the appropriate harvesting conditions that we need to make progress. The weather plays a huge role in our day to day work and can be quite the challenge.
When people ask me questions like don’t you miss being home or how can you stand to be away from home for so long I always think of our military. Our military service men and women sacrifice their life for our country. They leave home and fight for our country. What I do for a living is possible because of their sacrifice. My dad is a veteran and it’s just been instilled in me to think about the bigger picture. The United States of America is the land of the free because of the brave. Have that for a mindset while harvesting (away from home) and you’ll do just fine.
I’ve gained a lot by being able to experience the “American Harvest” year after year. I’ve always felt fortunate that I have a family to get to go to harvest with. It is a unique occupation no doubt about it and it is not for the faint of heart. It takes an exceptional work ethic, excellent work habits, honesty, responsibility, a grown up attitude and serious business professionalism and dedication to fulfill a harvest season year after year (typically May through November). The future of agriculture will always be interesting in my opinion. I want to be a part of it forever. I’d like to dedicate my All Aboard Wheat Harvest blog posts to those who know exactly what I’m talking about when it comes to appreciating the amber waves of grain and this beautiful country and lifestyle. Thank you to all that have contributed to the success of my family business, Schemper Harvesting from Holdrege, Nebraska. We are grateful for the employees and the customers.
I joined the All Aboard Wheat Harvest in 2017 and have appreciated the opportunity to get to share my harvest story with the readers. It’s been amazing to hear the feedback from those that subscribe to the High Plains Journal. I grew up reading the magazine and am very proud of it. I am a U.S. Custom Harvester and an ag journalist during harvest. During the harvest off-season, I haul grain locally and hire the crew for Schemper Harvesting. I am also an insurance agent and write home, auto, life, farm, crop and business insurance policies. I am also a Third Party CDL Tester.
On the road—We left home—Holdrege, Nebraska—early this morning. I am hauling my combine and header. Today is May 23 and I just checked the forecast for where we're going in southwest Oklahoma and it's not too good for 10 days. It looks like it'll be the usual June 1 start and will be awfully muddy.
Our luck has been down recently. We lost a combine on May 17 due to a horrible wreck. I've never seen anything like it and don't understand it. It's always been amazing to me how drivers slow down or even pull off the road when
Holdrege, Nebraska—Hello again for the 7th year in a row. I’m Janel Schemper and I am a third-generation custom harvester from Holdrege, Nebraska. This is my 42nd wheat harvest. I’ve been going on harvest my entire life and have been an All Aboard Wheat Harvest correspondent since 2017. My grandpa was a first-generation custom harvester. My dad and brothers are second- and third-generation harvesters. We’ll start our harvest run in southwest Oklahoma in May and work our way north during the summer months. We finish the wheat harvest up in North Dakota in mid-September. Our fall harvest takes place in
We got moved further west and north and are near the Montana North Dakota state line.
No two harvests are just alike and this has been an interesting one.
When the weather is good, North Dakota is a really amazing place to harvest. We've been staying busy cutting spring wheat and canola.
Southwestern North Dakota—We finished up in South Dakota on Aug. 10 and hustled to get loaded and on the road to the next job. We got moved on up to North Dakota on Aug. 11. We left very early in the morning and traveled in 65 degree partly cloudy weather up here and that was nice. Now here we are again and it feels great to be back in North Dakota.
We unloaded equipment, looked at fields and started on a full section of wheat. We took a sample to town and it wasn't quite dry enough, we waited a few
South Dakota—It's no surprise that the spring wheat is yielding well after finishing an excellent winter wheat crop. The spring wheat is yielding over 75 bushels per acre. It's a heavy crop weighing 63 to 65 pounds per bushel. We are binning the spring wheat and the bins are filling up quickly. The bins have air so that's been a blessing to keep us busy.
The heat and wind have also been a blessing for getting wheat cut recently. We had a few 100-plus degree temperature days along with 15 to 25 miles per hour wind with 35 mph gusts so
South Dakota—The winter wheat has been excellent overall here north of Pierre. It's been outstanding to tell the truth. One quarter we cut yielded 95.1 bushels per acre. The test weights have been 63 to 65 pounds per bushel and the protein 12 to 14%. The straw has continued to be tough and green and that takes horsepower, fuel, and time to thresh.
We've been staying busy cutting winter wheat but just finished. It's now Aug. 1 and we are waiting on the spring wheat. We've had dry conditions as well as plenty of heat and wind and it's really changing
South Dakota—We got here July 20 and the winter wheat had green in it yet so we waited a couple of days to let it ripen. When we did sample it was 12.4%. So we've been staying busy cutting excellent winter wheat north of Pierre, South Dakota. It's yielding in the 80s and is a heavy crop weighing 65 pounds per bushel. The protein is above 14%.
The wheat is standing good but the straw has been green and tough and that takes horsepower and fuel to get through it. We just replaced all of the sickle sections on two headers