Southwestern North Dakota–Life on the road is what I know but it isn’t for the faint of heart. There are a lot of unknowns out here on harvest. Being a custom harvester is a fingers-crossed hope it all works out, kind of day-to-day gamble. Some days I have a gut ache or a headache and sometimes even heart ache. This career comes with stress. We work hard and often I'm praying with my eyes wide open.

Luckily, we have been staying busy cutting spring wheat. It’s making around 30 to 40 bushels an acre. It’s been all bin work so far.

Southwestern North Dakota–Everything is good here. They’ve got a good crop for us to cut this year. It looks like 40-bushel wheat and the forecast is hot and dry. I just got to southwestern North Dakota after four days of traveling up from western Kansas. The harvest is just getting started around here. There is some wheat cut but there is also green wheat around, which is the first green wheat I’ve seen all summer. Everywhere I’ve been the wheat has been more than ready to cut. I just traveled across four states and am finally catching back up to

Western Kansas–I’ve been here in western Kansas for almost a month and am the last cutter in town but that is OK because we have been staying busy in the fields. We ended up staying in western Kansas with two combines while the rest of the crew went north and handled cutting all of our wheat jobs in western Nebraska. They have just finished up there and are making the big move up to north central Montana now with six combines. My dad and I finished up our main wheat job here and gained more work so we’ll just stay

Western Kansas–We’ve been rained out three times while we’ve been harvesting wheat in western Kansas. Some of the wheat has been laying flat on the ground. The conditions haven’t been the greatest while we've been here trying to get the wheat harvested. While combining, the dirt and dust just flies. The combines are filthy from all the dirt, dust and rainstorms.

The wheat has been averaging around 60 and 70 bushels per acre. The test weights have been less than 60 pounds per bushel and with every rain the test weights keep getting worse. The protein has been staying around 12

Western Kansas–Harvest has been full blast for weeks now and we have been staying very busy.  All eight of Schemper Harvesting's combines are out here in western Kansas and we are certainly working the days away. The dry land wheat has been yielding in the 50s and 60s and the irrigated in the 80s and 90s. The test weights have been over 60 pounds per bushel and the protein around 12%. Our farmers up north are calling and wanting combines. We’ve got a ways to go yet before we can finish up here and move north to western Nebraska to

East of Dodge City, Kansas–We have been staying busy. All of our combines are now in Kansas and are finding plenty of dry wheat to cut. Farmers are calling me wanting their wheat cut. This is when I wish I had more combines. Wheat is ready all across the state of Kansas. Being in high demand is great but stressful too. I have a big passionate heart about harvest and want to get everyone’s wheat cut as soon as possible.

Kansas had a cool and wet spring and the wheat evidently liked it. Here east of Dodge City the wheat is

Pratt, Kansas–We arrived in southern Kansas on June 18. It was a hot 105 degrees F the day we moved. We had to travel slower because it was so hot outside. We traveled highways 183 and 281 and a lot of wheat had been cut the whole way up until about the state line area. Here at Pratt the wheat harvest was just getting started. We unloaded and went to the field and our first three loads went 14.0%, 13.2% and 11.4%. We were right on time and have been staying very busy cutting wheat.

With hot and dry conditions we

Southwest Oklahoma–Wheat harvest has just been full of tough luck lately. The weather has delayed our progress at our first stop. It’s getting late and we need to get the wheat cut here so we can move up the road.  We caught another rain last night. We just can’t roll. It feels like we have not had a big day of cutting yet. We want to get over some acres and get the grain hauled to the elevator but the weather has been challenging.

The wheat has been yielding 35 to 65 bushels per acre. The test weights have been over

Southwest Oklahoma – I had thoughts of going on harvest and cutting wheat right away when we arrived May 25. We waited around for several days before we got to start cutting. We definitely didn't come here to sit, we came to work but there's nothing I can do about the weather. I've been through it before. I know I just have to wait it out because that's the way harvest is sometimes. So far the yields have been decent. I’ve cut 45- to 65-bushel wheat. The test weights have been 58 to 63 pounds per bushel and the protein

Southwest Oklahoma–We arrived at our first harvest stop on May 25. The wheat was still a little green and the forecast not so hot. We took the time to attend the US Custom Harvesters, Inc. safety meeting in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was a very good meeting and there was quite the crowd that attended. The speakers were really great and hopefully everyone learned a lot. Safety should always be a priority. Did you know that truck drivers are required to wear a seat belt and texting while driving is not allowed at all? I see people texting and driving