That's All, Folks!: Wheat Stats 2015

It may not be in the Farmers Almanac, but the guys at the coffee shop will proclaim it:  Wheat has nine lives.

That was certainly the case for our 2015 wheat crop. When all was said and done, our 2015 wheat crop averaged 50 bushels per acre. Our high was 70 bushels per acre, and our low was 36 bushels per acre.

We began planting the 2015 crop on Monday, September 22, 2014, and sowed 1,355 acres. We had a dry fall and little snow this winter, leaving the wheat looking for moisture this spring as it "woke" from its winter "sleep." As I wrote in April, it was "height-challenged" because of dry conditions, and, at that time, we didn't think the late spring rain would make a difference. But it did. More rains in May helped fill the wheat heads.

This year, we started harvest on June 20, and, after some machinery hiccups, had a good run. We got rain and didn't cut at all on June 26. When the end was in sight, our combine went down. Thankfully, our neighbor, Gary, was able to harvest the last 40 acres for us with his machine, and the last loads of wheat went over the Kanza Co-op scales on July 1.

We also had a custom cutter harvest 355 acres north of Stafford, and we didn't have the numbers from him until yesterday. Then, Randy was finally able to figure the statistics of Wheat Harvest 2015.

So how does our 50 bushels per acre average this year stack up? Last year, Harvest 2014, was not a good year, and we averaged 24.5 bushels per acre. Our best year ever was 2013, when we averaged 52 bushels per acre, despite planting into dust and several late freezes.

As the sun sets on our 2015 crop, we're thankful for God's blessing of a bountiful harvest. And, in late September, the journey will begin again with planting the 2016 crop. Such is the circle of life on a Kansas farm.

To Market, To Market

Then and now ...

Some harvest scenes haven't changed. A blue Kansas sky provides a backdrop as a combine unloads golden grain into a waiting truck. But compare the 1950s-era truck and combine with today's machines, and it's like the farm version of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."

This 1970s-era truck driver has changed a bit, too. But, as a farm daughter turned farm wife, harvest is still part of my DNA.

My Dad had me helping in the harvest field at about age 12. I began moving the grain trucks around in the wheat field before I was old enough to make trips to the elevator. After my Dad would make another swath with the combine, I'd move the truck closer so he didn't have to take time driving to the truck.

When I had my farm permit, I was promoted to a "real" truck driver and took loads of wheat to the Iuka Co-op. I remember being coached by my Dad and also by a truck driver named Ed, who taught me the fine points of waiting in line, unrolling the tarp, how to dump the truck and instructions in the fine art of elevator etiquette. 

After last harvest's truck troubles, we upgraded to a semi. It's been a great addition to the farm fleet. We used it during corn harvest last year, but this is our first wheat harvest using it. Since it can hold much more than a traditional farm truck, it requires fewer back-and-forth trips to the elevator.

Jake usually drives the semi, but I went along for the ride when Randy was the driver. (Yes, I could learn to drive the semi if needed. So far, my services have not been required.)

It's definitely a different vantage point traveling down the road in a semi.

Here, we arrive at the Zenith branch of the Kanza Co-op.

Randy unrolls the tarp.

 

He pulls the semi onto the scales at the co-op office, where they weigh the loaded truck. With the orange probe, they get a sample of the wheat and test for quality, including weight, moisture, protein and foreign matter.

At Zenith, there are two dump sites. This time, we were directed to the dump site outside the elevator.

Randy waits while another truck pulls out.

Once the truck is in position, the co-op workers open the hatches underneath the truck. The truck is emptied through gravity.

We still use the tandem truck as needed. A hoist lifts the truck bed on the old truck. Here are some photos from corn harvest that illustrate the difference:

A co-op worker opens the slides on the back of the truck, then signals the driver to begin raising the truck bed. As the driver, you watch in your rearview mirror and watch for hand signals from the co-op worker. Sometimes, they want you to pause so the grain doesn't pile up.

The bed is fully raised in the photo below. Once the truck is empty, the driver puts down the truck bed back down before pulling away.

No matter the method, it's a dirty job with all the grain dust swirling around!

Once the grain was unloaded from the semi, Randy pulled away for the trip back to the scales.

 

They weigh the empty truck and can then determine how much wheat we delivered to the co-op. Below, Tara gives Randy the ticket with the information about quantity and quality. If you click on the photo to make it bigger, you can see she's using a yardstick contraption to reach the driver's hands. That way, it saves steps for everybody.

Right before we pulled away, we took a look at the market board in the window. (This was from a week ago, so the prices reflect the June 23 price.) The wheat is stored at the co-op until we are ready to sell it

The farmer or landlord pays a storage fee to the co-op based on the amount of time the grain was stored before being sold. Then, it belongs to the co-op. When they  sell it, most is trucked out of the elevator to the buyer. (In the past, rail travel helped move a lot of grain, too, but most of it is trucked these days, at least in this area.)

Then it was back to the field to do it all over again.

Time Out

Nature's light show was last evening's after-supper entertainment. As lightning flashed against the dark blue sky like early 4th of July fireworks, we hoped it would stay north of us.

Instead, we got 0.35" of rain last night, with another 0.10" early this morning. That will keep us out of the harvest field for at least part of the day. But it is much less rain than some of our farm friends got in other locations across the state, some of whom got hail, too. We were happy to avoid that!

As the storm approached last night, it meant some pretty photos with the golden wheat silhouetted against a darkening sky.

Farmers don't ever like to admit that we'd rather it not rain. But when there's still plenty of wheat to cut, we would have preferred for it to wait a few days.

Still, the corn and silage will like the little sip of water, and our summer pastures can also use a little refreshment. Sometimes, you just have to find the silver lining.

Picture Perfect Harvest Scenes

Randy & I thought this looked like an illuminated cross.

When I was in fifth grade, my parents took the whole family on a Christmas break trip to California. It was quite an adventure for a little Kansas girl. Now, when I think about it as a parent, I marvel that Mom and Dad put four kids in a car - one a toddler - and drove us halfway across the country for this big adventure.

We visited Mickey Mouse. We dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. We experienced Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. We drove across the border into Mexico, where we were not permitted to eat or drink anything and almost starved to death. (OK, that's what my 11-year-old brain thought since we didn't get to eat lunch until mid-afternoon. This Midwestern farm girl grew up eating at 12 noon on the dot!)

And we went to the Tournament of Roses parade, where I took roll after roll of photos of the flower-bedazzled floats. The thing is: They were all in black and white. Through the years, it became the family joke. (In my parents' defense, it cost a lot more money to develop color film back then, and it's not exactly like I was fast becoming Annie Leibovitz or anything.)

So, when I was snapping away yesterday afternoon in the wheat field, I told Randy that we were going to have a reenactment of the Rose Parade. However, this time, I was shooting in color. Yes, I shot 102 photos from about 6:30 to 9 o'clock last night. Randy is grateful for the advent of digital photography.

But, in my defense, it was just so pretty. As I delivered meals to the harvest field, thunderheads were illuminated by the sun in the western sky. Ripe wheat provided a foreground. (Randy thought I could PhotoShop Jesus in the cross-shaped cloud, and it would look just like heaven. But, alas, again no Annie Leibovitz around here and no PhotoShop either.)

I rode the combine with Randy after the guys finished supper.

From the combine cab - HDR photo treatment

The sunset was no less spectacular than the views from the supper hour.

Taken from the combine steps

Like an old Western movie, Jake drove off into the sunset.

And I watched and waited as the sun set over a Kansas wheat field.

No Hollywood movie type could have arranged a more beautiful way to usher out the day.

At one point, it seemed the sun was balanced on the highline wire.

It was a great day: The guys were able to start cutting early. There were no breakdowns. (Knock on wood and turn around three times.) And I got some pretty stunning, non-black-and-white photos of this beautiful place we call home. Who needs a trip to Disneyland or the Rose Parade?

Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Wheat Harvest 2015

Caution: Harvest complications ahead!

Harvest 2015 finally started on the County Line Saturday afternoon after another visit from the mechanic. I made a trip for parts on Saturday afternoon, and Randy made another one Sunday morning.

And I think we are finally off like a herd of turtles. Maybe I should say we're off like a mischief of mice. (That's what one online source calls a "herd" of mice. The mice or packrats definitely caused mischief in the combine wiring.)

But, actually, the guys got a good amount cut yesterday afternoon. Jake had the combine apart by the time Randy got back. Once I delivered the noon meal (which was closer to 1), it only took them 10 minutes to get everything back together.

My eternal optimist says that we're 1/10th done with harvest. I guess that's one way to look at it.

"Rain makes grain," as the guys at the coffee shop say. And while this crop is not going to be a bumper crop for us, the May rains definitely helped fill the wheat heads. After a dry fall, winter and early spring, the May rains were a God-send toward making respectable yields.

As we were waiting for the fields to dry out from last week's rains, it seemed like harvest was late. But, in reality, it's about average for the past few years:

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earlier harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20

Here's hoping for a breakdown-free day today!

Rainy Days and Mondays

The wheat heads are bending in their harvest pose. But harvest is likely several days away after another 1.95 inches of rain fell since Friday (1 inch Friday, 0.60" on Saturday and 0.35" on Sunday).

Our combine is in the shop right now anyway, since the guys discovered that mice or packrats had chewed through a lot of wiring over the winter. They are supposed to bring it back tonight or tomorrow morning.

I went out this morning to see if I could find dewdrops on the ripe wheat heads to illustrate the soggy conditions. But the sun and a slight breeze had already dried the ripe heads. The breeze sure didn't blow the mosquitoes away!

If you look closely, you can see plenty of raindrops collected on the downed wheat. With additional rain, there are even more pockets of wheat "lying down on the job." I may not have gotten the photo I intended to capture this morning, but my tennis shoes, socks and pants were soaked after my morning foray into the fields.

Like diamonds, the dew dotted the day lilies, which bloomed while I was in Wichita at the Great Plains UMC annual conference. 

It was a nice "Welcome home!" Every time they bloom, I think of Katherine, who moved into this house as a young bride and planted those lilies years ago. I've been enjoying them for 30 years now. We plant seeds in life. We may never realize the way they blossom far into the future.

Hurry Up and Wait

Hurry up and wait.

That seems to be the theme around here. Randy spent part of his Sunday afternoon driving around and checking farm ground and pastures, trying to figure out where they could get in the field this week. Water covered half of northbound road to the Rattlesnake Pasture, and he was thinking he should have skipped the trip. But he made it without getting stuck, thankfully!

But, after another 0.40" of unexpected rain Monday morning, we are back to a holding pattern. Even with cooler-than-normal temperatures and excess moisture, the wheat is starting to turn. 

I hope it will hold out until after June 13. I am supposed to be our church's representative to the Great Plains annual conference of the United Methodist Church. It includes all the UMChurches in Kansas and Nebraska. Back when it was just the Kansas West conference, we met at the end of May. It's obvious that those planning the conference have no connection to rural Kansas or Nebraska or to rural life in general.

The rain may have again slowed down farm work. But it provided some pretty window dressing for our backyard blooms.

Do you like the HDR treatment above or the non-altered version below?

I kind of feel like the eye doctor, asking questions like that: Is this one better (HDR version of the lavender by the wash house) ...

... or do you like this one better?

Pretty either way, don't you think?

There's no question which of these "pictures" I like best. The new Kansas drought map, dated May 26, shows marked improvement on drought conditions in the state.

Here's the map from just a month ago:

It's been one of the wettest Mays on record. Wichita, with 11.77 inches, and Great Bend, with 10.36 inches, both tabulated the second wettest May, while Kanopolis Lake, Tribune and Colby had enough to make it the third wettest.

And while more raindrops on the forecast map make it hard to decide whether or not to put down our first cutting of alfalfa, it's been a long time since Kansas had so few counties affected by drought. 

When we compare it to March 2013, we definitely should count our blessings along with the raindrops.