The yellow rose is blooming.

In past years, this was the indicator that it was time to be packing the trailer house, getting equipment loaded and heading south.

A family picture album I recently picked up included old harvest pictures and articles. 1977 was written on the inside cover – the year my dad decided to see if taking over Grandpa’s harvest business was what he wanted to do. I found an article that had been written and published in the Sidney, Nebraska Telegraph. So many things have changed since then.

There was a statement made in that article that I’ve thought about all day…”They have harvested wheat for the same farmers each year, for the most part, and have made friends in every area they have worked.”

Let’s fast-forward to 2018. “They have harvested wheat for the same farmers each year…”  It used to be like that for us. We knew our route well and who our customers were. Somewhere along the way, things changed.

And when the changes occurred, the security of knowing the same route went right out the window.

Before I say anything more, I want it to be known that what I say is my opinion. I’m not speaking for every harvester out there…only as the Z Crew. And I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m whining – simply stating facts about the 2018 wheat harvest.

The 2017 wheat harvest was a challenge for Jim and me. We finished cutting our last wheat field on July 17 – almost six weeks sooner than it should have been. And seemed we were continually wondering, “Now what do we do?” We didn’t think it could get much worse. Little did we know, 2018 was setting up to provide us with more sleepless nights and again questioning, “What the heck are we going to do?”

We thought about the 2017 harvest when the year was ending and a decision had to be made about trading the Beast for a newer model. We felt if we could make it through the past summer with the ups and downs and repairs, we could surely make the trade work in our favor. This was all being based on the stops we knew we had lined up (or so we thought) in 2018 – from June through the first of October.

The problems for the 2018 wheat crop began to take shape. Same as 2017…drought, late freezes, low commodity prices, crop insurance, and less acres planted since records started being kept in 1919 (for the second year). The drought did a flip-flop. In 2017, it was severe in the northern states. In 2018, it’s the southern states that are suffering. For the most part, these same issues are plaguing other harvesters, as well. I’ve heard from several saying the same thing, “This may be our last year.”

This would have been our third year at our first stop. You caught that…right? Would have been. The drought took care of it for us. The insurance company zeroed it out.

Now, I know nothing about crop insurance so I went to the USDA website and found, “History of the Crop Insurance Program”. It appears to be an old program but has had more participation in the last 20 years. It is a major competitor for our industry. In a down year, the farmer would rather collect the insurance payment than to have to write the check to pay the harvester. A friend of mine recently told me someone told him, “I hate having to pay the harvest bill.”

But this goes hand-in-hand with the low commodity prices. If wheat was worth more, the farmer may opt to have the crop harvested rather than collect the insurance. I understand the farmer needs to show a profit…but we need to, as well.

We don’t farm. Jim and I have never farmed. We are custom harvesters. We don’t purchase the equipment to cut our own crop. We purchase the equipment to provide a service. The only return of investment we get from that equipment is a result of someone else’s crop being put through it. If there’s no crop…there’s no income. We have no safety net.

Safety net, aka insurance. I’m not sure that we would even participate if it were offered. It’s another expense. An expense that is based on a risk. And the high dollar premium that it would require to insure that risk can be better used elsewhere. The profit margin just isn’t high enough to justify throwing our hard-earned money into a program that would probably have loop holes making it unable to make a claim.

The better return of investment is to actually put crop through the machine.

The weather has been wreaking havoc on the wheat crop. The droughts, the late season freezes, hail and the late spring are messing things up for our industry. We have no control over this, I know.  But it all plays into the level of the harvester’s stress. We might have job #2, as long as it can hold on. It needs a drink, minus hail. The weather can mess up a darn good plan in a matter of minutes.

Speaking of plans, we were once part of one – one that would require changing our route and purchasing another header. It sounded like the perfect plan at the time. Jim and I were feeling a strain on our run in Montana at the time. Our steady customer (the one who would wait for us…sometimes way longer than he should have) passed away and we were finding it difficult to round up acres to keep us busy enough to justify the long haul north. We had been making the trek to the same area for 30+ years.

We no longer fit into the perfect plan. This has left us with a very LARGE hole which will need to be filled. One that can provide us with enough income to make payments on that additional header. And the concern is…how do we do that?

Our industry relies on wheat to make everything work. These acres are being replaced with fall crop. Wheat is the only crop that begins to ripen in the south and moves slowly northward. We need six full months of harvest to earn enough income to pay for the equipment, the fuel, the insurance, and all the expenses incurred while on the road…to justify doing what we’re doing.

Fall crops ripen differently than the gradual ripening of the wheat. Fall crops are basically ready all at the same time. The custom harvester can generally only make it to one area for the fall crops; therefore, the mentality that all those acres will still need cut just doesn’t work for us. What it does do is give the farmer more justification to own a combine and less of a reason to hire a harvester.

Where do we go from here? We have no consistent route anymore. Nothing that can be counted on. After being on the road for 36 years, the 2018 harvest appears to be the one with the most unknowns.

Is our industry on its way out? Or, is it in a slump and with patience, endurance and persistence it will continue? I guess time will tell. As for the Z Crew? We’ll keep pushing forward as best as we can. It’s very difficult to watch the other crews head south and we’re still sitting, waiting and praying for a place to go.

God knows what the plan is. I must remain patient and wait to see how this is all going to play out. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.“ Romans 8:28