What? No Photos? Wheat Harvest 2024

All photos in this post are by Randy.

It seems like sacrilege, but I didn't take a single photo of our 2024 Wheat Harvest. We've been married (and farm partners) for 43 years. I know I was also around for the harvest before we got married. So, for 44 years, I'd documented wheat harvest on the County Line with photos. As a farm daughter and wheat truck driver growing up on a farm in Pratt County, I also took my share of wheat photos there.

Before retirement, I took dozens - maybe hundreds - each harvest. So it was definitely a weird feeling to know that I'd missed the whole thing. (I had a good excuse. My dad was in the hospital at the time. He's doing much better now.)

I told Randy that if he wanted photos of this year's harvest, he was going to have to pull the phone out of his pocket. He complied.

This year, the Millers opted to plant less wheat on our ground in an effort to combat rye. Only 15 percent of our owned ground was planted to wheat this year. In years past, it was closer to 50 percent. 

Plus, they hire their wheat cut by custom cutters, Frederick Harvesting and Trucking, based at Alden. So the whole process goes much more quickly than when we were combining and trucking the majority of it ourselves. Two combines and a grain cart pulled into the first field the afternoon of June 12. They moved locations and were totally done by about 10 PM that night. 

And there was another factor: The continuing drought certainly didn't produce a bumper crop. However, it was much better than we anticipated after an extremely dry fall, winter and early spring. 

We got the totals yesterday. As I said, we didn't have a lot of wheat planted on our ground this year. One field (which we refer to as Peace Creek) made 33 bushels to the acre. At our other field (Tretbar), the yield was 41 bu/acre. That gave an overall average of 37.8 bu/acre for this harvest. 

I got several texts from Randy that day as he rode in the combine with one of the custom harvesters. The newer John Deere combines had all the bells and whistles. The combine driver could even control the speed of the grain cart tractor from his machine. The grain cart showed how many pounds they were offloading from the combine. And, of course, Randy was watching the grain yield monitor about as closely as he did back when he was in the driver's seat. 

There are aspects of wheat harvest Randy misses. It was always his favorite time of the year. That is, UNTIL we had a breakdown. 

 

So when he sent this photo of the custom cutting crew making repairs, he said. "I don't miss this part." 

Nope, me neither. Though maybe I am missing my friends at the parts counter. On second thought, that's OK.