Western Kansas—We've had many days recently where the wind has been 25 to 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 40 and 50 miles per hour. We call them "hang on to your hat" kind of days. We loaded up in the afternoon heat and moved from southern to western Kansas the weekend of June 18 and 19. The heat and wind was terrible. It was almost too dangerous to be out traveling in it.

It's now June 26 and we've had a very busy week harvesting with our Shelbourne Reynolds stripper headers. The wheat east of town yielded around

Western Kansas—We've been staying very busy cutting wheat because it's been hot (100-plus degrees) and windy most days lately. We spent the past week in southern Kansas cutting wheat. The wheat yielded around 50 bushels per acre and the test weights were 62.5 to 64.9 pounds per bushel. With the hot and dry conditions we were fortunate to get the wheat cut without any rain delays and harvest is moving along quickly.
Now today, June 19, we moved out to western Kansas and it's been terribly hot and very windy for two days. The wind has been blowing 20 to 30

Oklahoma-We just finished cutting wheat here June 12 and, overall, I cut quite a bit of short wheat in Oklahoma this year. Short wheat means the header is nearly constantly in the dirt. I don't know how many times I had to get out of the combine and dig dirt out of the header. We've cut wheat recently that made anywhere from 20 to 40 bushels per acre. The test weights have been around 58 and 59 pounds per bushel. There was some dock on sprout damage. The wheat had been rained on several times in the past couple of

Southwest Oklahoma–It’s June 6 and I’m still at first stop on wheat harvest. Here I thought we’d be in and out of here so fast but once again we get here and it rains and the wheat harvest is delayed. We’ve been cutting off and on and playing the waiting game due to the rain. The farmers here are happy with the rain because it’s great for their corn, cotton and peanut crops. All of the custom harvesters want to go south for wheat harvest and have a great start but sometimes it’s just a dream and a wish. However,

Southwest Oklahoma–The start of harvest is very challenging because there is so much that goes into training the crew. There is a lot of noise on harvest crews' two-way radios because literally there is so much training going on constantly. Most of the employees on harvest crews are seasonal workers and experience the harvest maybe one or two seasons only–some less and some more. The amount of questions asked in a day’s time when harvest is starting out is challenging because it takes the skill of patience to deal with training. Eventually with time, hopefully everyone catches on and things

Southwest Oklahoma–I left for harvest on May 18 and arrived in southwest Oklahoma on May 19. We parked the campers and unloaded the equipment in 107-degree heat.  Then we went to the field and sampled right away and the grain wasn't quite dry enough yet. It seems like this time of year always sneaks up on me so quickly. It’s time to cut wheat and harvest begins again. On May 22 we got to cutting wheat and cut late that night and I really enjoy that sometimes. It brings back lots and lots and lots of memories of getting out of

Hey from the 308–but not for long. It’s nearly time to cut wheat. My name is Janel Schemper. I am a third-generation custom harvester from Holdrege, Nebraska. I’ve been a harvester forever and my combine career keeps me very busy. I am a combine operator, truck driver, and I hire our employees. Every May our harvesting crew goes south for wheat harvest. We start in southwest Oklahoma and cut in seven states while working our way north following the wheat harvest. Our crews end up in Montana and North Dakota. We typically finish up wheat harvest in September and then

Northeastern North Dakota–We got moved up to our last stop on wheat harvest and got to cut for several days before we got rained out. We cut spring wheat that was yielding around 50 to 70 bushels per acre. The test weights were over 63 pounds per bushel and the protein around 15%. We also cut field peas and finished cutting them right before it rained.

A lot of wheat got cut in this area last week. Several harvesters are not here yet. We got here right on time and went straight to the field and had pretty good going until

Northeastern North Dakota (15 miles from the Canadian Border)–We got moved up to our last stop on wheat harvest and went straight to the field when we arrived. We’ve been staying busying cutting spring wheat. It’s yielding pretty well even though there’s a drought going on up here in the Dakotas. It’s been making 45 to 65 bushels per acre and the test weights have been around 63 pounds per bushel and the protein has been around 15%.

The weather has been hot and dry. The day we moved up here it was 95 degrees. The harvest is just getting started

Southwestern North Dakota–We have been doing well cutting spring wheat here in my favorite wheat state of North Dakota. We had a nine day run of cutting wheat before we caught a rain. It has been all farm yard bin work so far and has been working out pretty good. The wheat has been making 35 to 50 bushels per acre and the test weights have been over 60 pounds per bushel. We just started on some canola today (a 640-acre field) and it is borderline ready to go. The moisture was showing 8.5 to 9.5% and since we are