Tag Archives: wheat

let the games begin

by Nebraska Wheatie

There’s one thing I can say about wheat harvest 2014…it’s not typical.

I was given the morning off (July 14). The guys were going to be moving the equipment to the fields that used to bring us to Limon. I was told that I would have most of the morning to do what I needed to do and get lunches made. Jim would call when they needed me. No big deal…they’d be close to Limon and Taylor could take me to the field.

Sounded like a great plan. If only the wheat would have cooperated. It wasn’t quite ready.

So, I got a call telling me to go to the Pete and follow Scott to the field. Which is what I did.  I didn’t look to see what time it was when we got to the field, so I’m going to guess about 1:00 or so. The combines met us there and Chad took his into the wheat to cut a sample. The moisture was a little on the high-end. Let’s give it an hour or so…HURRY UP AND WAIT!

Actually, this is one of my favorite things to do (if I don’t have anything else pressing me to get done) when we’re cutting with others. I enjoy spending time with them and learning more about the people we’re working with.

The first waiting-for-the-wheat-to-dry game was throwing rocks at the corner post and see who can hit something. It was funny how a simple rock being thrown began as a personal challenge for one and turned into a game for them all. Even Jim picked up a couple of rocks and started throwing them.

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the beauty of a cloud

by Nebraska Wheatie

IMG_4315The pastures are so brown. This countryside is desperate for a drink.

Yesterday was nearly a full day for us. We waited for the sprinkle from the night before to dry off with the heat of the sun. I think we started just before noon and the moisture was still a little on the high-end. But, once we made a couple of rounds, it was back to a reasonable number which wasn’t necessary to be concerned about.  By the time that perfect number rolled around, we were throwing dust and moving along quite nicely.

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came as strangers – left as family

by Nebraska Wheatie

IMG_4295

The days have been long.

Since my last post, we’ve moved to Limon, Colorado – higher elevation, cool nights and no biting flies (oh…and a view of Pikes Peak from the field). Since six days have already come and gone, I’ll take this one day at a time and get caught up.

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distant fireworks

by Nebraska Wheatie

photo 1 (1) - Copy

Yesterday we celebrated the anniversary of our Nation’s independence. I hope you did something fun and traditional.

photo (6)I sent this picture to A Kansas Farm Mom after she challenged those of us in agriculture, “If you or your family is spending the holiday producing food for others, share a picture on this page. Happy Fourth of JULY!”

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what the rain prevented

by Nebraska Wheatie

It was sprinkling when we woke up this morning.

We had an additional .25 of an inch of rain last night. As I said in my last post, it came down at a nice slow pace. Not like the past several storms where the sky turned black and green and very angry with rain and hail pounding the ground. It was a relaxing rain. The day was so not like SW Kansas on July 1. We are typically faced with extreme heat and wind. So much wind you wish you could just cover your ears and make it go away (lalalalalala).

I remember one summer in particular staying in the farmer’s yard near Anthony, Kansas. The electricity wasn’t enough to pull the air conditioner in the trailer house so we had to endure the heat and the wind with the windows open. At that time, I had little kids and I wasn’t the “hired man”. I was the cook. Have you ever cooked in a trailer house that’s about 150 degrees already? And the wind just howled. I felt like I was going to go out of my mind. This one afternoon, I just closed up the windows and turned on that air conditioner just to get a break from the wind. I didn’t win the battle. The breaker clicked and I had to open the windows and endure. Until you’ve listened to wind howl like that, you can’t judge my decision. 🙂 Continue reading →

we found some wheat (and mud) to cut

by Nebraska Wheatie

 

photo 2 (14) - CopyAs I’m typing this, the pitter patter of rain is hitting the Cottage roof and I can hear thunder every once in awhile.

We were able to finally get started after lunch today. It had been over a week since the first storm rolled in. Today we cut on a piece that was under a pivot but wasn’t yielding as well as we had hoped. It certainly wasn’t the typical irrigated wheat yields for this area. I’m guessing the late season freezes probably had something to do with that. And…it didn’t help that it had hail pounding it a couple of nights ago. There were broken heads laying on the ground and wheat that had shattered. It looked like it was only going to make about 15 bushels per acre. The quality was still really good – over 60 pound test weight. Just not very much of it.

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our EXTENDED raincation

by Nebraska Wheatie

IMG_4151Yes, you read that right. More rain. It came down in sheets starting just before midnight on Friday night (6/27). Jim was watching the radar and kept me posted how it looked. “Whelp, it looks like it’s raining at the combine but it looks like we won’t get anything here. It’s headed Northeast”. Then he fell asleep on the couch and it began to rain. Well, first I noticed the intense lightning that kept flashing through the closed shades. So I went to the door and realized the storm was headed directly for us.

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raincation – day 5

by Nebraska Wheatie

photo 5 - Copy (2)This was on the side panel of the New Holland demo combine.

I slept in this morning. Why not? Nothing was pushing me to get out of bed.

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our raincation

by Nebraska Wheatie

photo 1 (6) - CopyIt was a brand new morning! The events of yesterday were the first thing I thought about but a little easier to accept.

It was a beautiful morning so I decided to grab my fishing pole and go down to the pond for a little while. I stood by the edge and watched two rather large trout swim in front of me. They were taunting me, as if to say they knew I wouldn’t be able to catch them.  Watching them reminded me of a recurring dream that I’ve had. In the dream, I’m always standing on the edge of a lake (more like a cliff) looking down in the water and the water is so clear. So clear, I can see the fish swimming around. Anyone out there know what the meaning of that dream could be?

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just tinkering

by Nebraska Wheatie

photo (7) - CopyLook who made the trip and is keeping me company til the girls get here. Isn’t he growing!!

 One thing is certain with harvest – nothing is certain!

I had an idea when we left home we may be sitting for a little while before we did any cutting. That appears to be the story. Our farmer has a combine. To make the situation a little easier to understand, our farmer also has a Shelbourne Stripper Head (to see what I’m talking about, click here to view a Shelbourne Head) and uses it to cover his dry land wheat. The stripper head removes only the head of wheat and leaves the straw. It does exactly what it sounds like it does…it strips the head from the plant. These headers are very popular in this part of Kansas because the straw that’s left will help catch any snow that may happen to fall. And in this “desert”, any moisture received is precious. He has us cut the wheat under the irrigation pivots because it reduces the amount of straw. Typically, irrigated wheat will grow much better than dry land – due to the amount of water that can be applied to the wheat as it’s growing. Too much straw affects planting next year’s crop.

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