And That's a Wrap: Harvest 2021

The sun has set on Wheat Harvest 2021. We cut the final 20 acres of wheat on Monday afternoon. It was at a location that had more rain, and we were trying to avoid getting stuck on the soggy ground. (It's always an additional success when we don't have to call a Caterpillar tractor to pull us out of a "sticky" situation, like in 2019).

On one of my combine rides after a supper delivery last week, I couldn't resist a photo of the sunset glow in the neighbor's soybean field. To me, it also illustrates the nature of farming. While one crop is being harvested, another grows. (There's probably a lesson for life there, too.)

View from the wheat truck

And, as usual, harvest efforts have been a combination of sunshine and rain, mechanical problems and everything in between.

 

But it's always good to look back. It's part of moving forward.

Our start date - June 17 - seems so long ago.  It's always interesting to see how start and end dates compare from year to year. Here are the stats since I began blogging:

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20
2016:  June 15
2017:  June 12
2018: June 12
2019: June 26
2020: June 16

2021: June 17 

The finish dates are all over the board in the past dozen years, too:

2010: June 25

2011: June 20

2012: June 9 (an anomaly)

2013: July 6

2014: July 7

2015: July 1

2016: July 13

2017: June 28

2018: June 29

2019: July 22

2020: July 7

2021: July 12

Yield averages in the years since I've been blogging have been:

2010: 37.2 bu/acre

2011: 36.7 bu/acre

2012: 45.5 bu/acre

2013: 52 bu/acre

2014: 24.5 bu/acre

2015: 50 bu/acre

2016: 48.5 bu/acre

2017: 50.84 bu/acre

2018: 39.2 bu/acre

2019: 23.6 bu/acre

2020: 49.5 bu/acre

2021: 58 bu/acre

In 2021, our high yield was 86 bushels per acre. Our low was 31. As Randy says, he's "exceptionally happy." It's our highest overall yield ever.

October 2020 - filling the drill while planting wheat

The 2021 wheat crop began last September 21, 2020, when we began planting this year's crop.  He finished up on October 6. For the 2021 crop year, 1,486 of our acres were devoted to wheat.

Really, the journey toward planting the 2021 crop started with the 2020 harvest, when we binned seed wheat - Bob Dole and Zenda - to use for this year. I blogged about taking seed wheat to Miller Seed Farm to be cleaned here.

It went back into our home bins until we were ready to plant it last September/October.

I also made the annual trek to Miller Seed Farm to pick up bags of certified wheat seed. The bags were planted for seed wheat for the 2022 crop.

Here are a few other photos of the wheat crop as it grew:

 We had an early snowfall on October 26.

I included a wheat update in this post right before Thanksgiving 2020.

Here was the wheat field (and a pretty sky) on January 23. 

The wheat field - and a visitor - were pictured on March 1 (with a blog post here.)

It's amazing how quickly the wheat begins to grow in the spring. By May 1, it looked like this:

On May 4, Kanza Co-op applied fungicide to our wheat crop. That decision paid off this year. 

By May 10, it was pollinating:

We began cutting June 17 this year and were delayed by breakdowns and weather. (Such is the life of a farm family.) But we were thrilled to have our whole family here June 18-20.

Harvest 2021

In March 2020, just as the pandemic began, Randy and I were installed as presidents of our respective branches of the Kansas Master Farmer/Homemaker organization. Because of Covid, the officers (including us) kept our offices for another year. So, in mid-June, I wrote my (our) second summer letter to our membership. 

 

I began the letter with a quote from author and evangelist Vance Havner:

God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength.

I used this photo from the 2020 wheat harvest as the letterhead and then referred to it in the text of the letter:

I get devotionals in my email inbox daily, but on occasion, I save one. I suppose Vance Havner’s quote resonated with me because of my lifelong connection to Kansas farming, first as a farm daughter in Pratt County, and now as a farm partner on the Stafford/Reno County line.

Likewise, as an amateur photographer, I’ve discovered that clouds punctuating an evening sky yield the best sunsets. Case in point was this favorite photo from wheat harvest 2020, when the setting sun burst through the western sky. A “broken” sky produces a much more dramatic end to the day than a cloudless evening. ...

... As I write this, we have just started wheat harvest on our farm on the Stafford/Reno County line.  It’s always an exciting – yet challenging -- time. There have already been “broken things” that we’d rather not experience. (The guys at Case know me on a first-name basis. I’m sure the same can be said for many of you at the parts store of your choice!) But “breaking” that finish line as the last truckload rumbles to the elevator is always a good feeling, too. Here’s wishing the best to you and yours as you accomplish this summer’s tasks on the farm.

Harvest 2021

Farmers and ranchers are essential workers. And, even if the world and the way we do things had to evolve, it was still a blessing to do the work that our ancestors have been doing for five generations in Kansas.

Randy & Melvin - undated photo - One of Melvin's final harvests

 

And now on to the next thing.That's part of farming, too.

 Today, it's helping out with 4-H foods judging at the Stafford County Fair.

Biscoff No-Bake Cookies

 

I'm pretty sure I've confessed this before, but just in case there's any doubt: I struggle with making no-bake cookies.

For someone who can make homemade pies and cinnamon rolls, that sounds like an absurd claim. I can put a tasty dinner on the table or deliver it to the field with no problems (most days).

 

But no-bake cookies have never been a strong suit. Sometimes, they're rock hard. Other times, they won't set up. But I did have good success with these Biscoff No-Bake Cookies.

Wheat harvest was/is dragging on. And while I still had regular cookies, packaged 2 X 2 in my freezer just like Noah's Ark, I decided the guys might like a little variety. (I make 3 or 4 varieties at the same time with this basic recipe and add-ins. Click here for the recipe.)

 

Randy says he doesn't like peanut butter. He may not prefer peanut butter, but he still manages to eat it if there aren't other options available (and sometimes when there are other options ... hence my claim that he really doesn't mind peanut butter all that much!)

But this recipe called for Biscoff Cookie Spread. It spreads like peanut butter, but it has the taste of Biscoff cookies. It can be found jarred in the peanut butter aisle at larger grocery stores. I like Biscoff spread, even though I've never had a Biscoff cookie in my life.

From what I understand, Biscoff cookies became popular among Americans after travelers were treated to the hard brown sugar/cinnamon-flavored "biscuits" on European airlines. They were originally produced in Belgium.

 

Turning on the oven was not required, so it was another bonus for the good ol' summer time - besides offering an alternative to my established cookie stash for harvest.

 

And, bonus! They weren't too hard or too soft. They were just right. Just call me Goldilocks. Let me know if you try them. 

 

We have about 20 acres of wheat to cut. It's where we got about 4 inches of rain total in a combination of storms. Randy says he'll try it again at the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

  Biscoff No-Bake Cookies

Adapted from Cooking Classy

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, diced into 4 pieces
1/2 cup milk (preferably 2% or whole)
1/2 cup Biscoff Cookie Spread*
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups quick oats

* You can find Biscoff Cookie Spread in larger grocery stores near the peanut butter.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, butter and milk. Heat mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture begins to boil. Allow mixture to boil for 45 seconds without stirring, then remove from heat. Immediately stir in Biscoff and vanilla, whisking until well blended, then mix in quick oats. Drop mixture by the spoonful or cookie scoop onto parchment or waxed paper and allow to cool until set. I got a couple of dozen with the size of scoop I used.

Knee High by the 4th of July?

Knee high by the 4th of July.

Just like putting something in the "ice box" or saving something to a "floppy disk," the terminology is no longer relevant today. Once upon a time, corn farmers measured the success of their corn crop, wanting it to be "knee high by the 4th of July." 

So did Rodgers and Hammerstein have a more accurate measuring stick for today's corn? In “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from their musical, Oklahoma!, the main characters marvel at the height of the corn, singing:

“There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow ...

The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye,

And it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky.”

Since there were no elephants around, I used my handy 6-foot-1-inch measuring stick. I'd say it looks good ... for now.  

With significant advances in agricultural technology, genetics, disease control and growth efficiency, today’s farmers can expect corn to reach far higher than the knee come Independence Day. Modern corn can flourish in conditions that might have stunted the plant in past generations. So in dry times or wet, too warm or too cool, the stalk generally keeps on growing and produces an ear. 

As you can see in the photo below, we got quite a bit of rain last week. Depending on the location, we got between 2 and 4 inches.

While our dryland corn liked the moisture, it was not so good for harvesting wheat. We cut late Monday afternoon (June 28 - after rains the weekend before kept us out of the field) and then weren't able to cut again until late evening, July 2. It gave us plenty of time for a crop update tour and other excursions.

The toadstools growing on the Stafford golf course sometimes caused some confusion with golf balls. It's not often you make a trip to the golf course when there's still wheat to be cut. But it took our minds off the uncompleted task for a little bit, I suppose.

The clouds provided a pretty backdrop for some dramatic landscape photos on the way home, too.

 

The humidity didn't allow early starts in the wheat field.

After Randy checked pastures on Saturday, he suggested a photo opportunity along U.S. Highway 50, just outside Sylvia. Someone had decorated their barbed wire fence with American flags. 

That excursion had me looking for my own medium-sized American flag for some shots in our wheat field while we waited on the sun to dry out the wheat.

Test weights suffered from the rain, but, thankfully, we didn't get hail or extreme wind, so the crop kept standing. The wheat is still yielding well. Yes, we are still cutting.

And, when you have time to play with filters and such, you make patriotic messages on photos.

The hiatus also gave me more time to practice the patriotic piano prelude I had planned for church on the 4th of July.  I played "The Star-Spangled Banner," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "God Bless America" and "America" before church started on Sunday, July 4. And I also played during communion, so it was a lot of extra playing. These days, I think about my piano teacher, Mrs. Lighter. She'd be amazed that the Moore girl with the least natural ability on the piano spends so much time playing these days. If only I'd devoted that practice time as a kid ... Oh, the wisdom of advancing age!

Thankfully, we hired a young farmer from the area to do some custom cutting for us. So we are getting closer to completion. The finish line is hovering at the horizon (though not today).

 

We are thankful for the co-op workers who came in to weigh and dump wheat trucks at Zenith on Saturday and Monday. I did take them some cookies. (I know it's not much, but we appreciate their work when many people were celebrating the 4th at the lake or elsewhere. The custom harvesters got a cookie delivery, too.)

The hay fields liked the rains, too. As I walked to the combine through an alfalfa field last evening after delivering supper, I decided that my camera needed "smell-o-vision." Swathing and baling the second cutting will have to wait until after we are done with the wheat.

Randy is battling some mud as we continue cutting. So far, he's been able to work his way through it. We hope that trend continues.

 

Big Mac Sloppy Joes

 

Anybody else feel like they get stuck in a "same-ol' same ol'" rut in the menu department? If not, congrats! If so, here's a variation on a supper-time staple ... Sloppy Joes.

During this time of year, I'm always on the lookout for sandwich varieties that I can make and transport to the field for supper. When clothes are already dirty from dirt, grease, wheat chaff and assorted other unidentified stains, "sloppy" seems to fit right in. Nobody's likely to ruin any good clothes as the inside of these sandwiches "slops" out.

But you don't have to serve these along a Kansas dirt road. They also make a tasty addition to the supper lineup at home - where there are plenty of napkins.

The original recipe called for the Sloppy Joes to be assembled like Big Macs. I didn't add an additional bun in the middle for our version and make a triple-decker sandwich. But the rest of the ingredients got a "thumbs up" from the harvest crew. 

If Big Macs aren't your sandwich of choice, there are some other tried-and-true recipes at the bottom of this post. And for all you in the harvest field? Keep the faith and keep on truckin'. I hope this recipe helps you with your "to-go" menu. 

And, I hope we'll be able "to-go" to the field again soon. We got another 0.80" of rain last night. And I hear the thunder rumbling this morning, too.  Fingers crossed that the weather forecast of dry weather for the 4th of July weekend comes true. We'll skip the fireworks if we can just cut wheat.

Big Mac Sloppy Joes

Adapted from Dinner Then Dessert blog

Ground Beef Mixture 

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup hamburger pickles, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

McDonald's Secret Sauce Recipe:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup French dressing
2 tablespoons sweet relish
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

To Assemble Double Decker: (I just did a single decker)

8 hamburger buns 
2 cups iceberg lettuce , shredded
12 hamburger pickle chips
4 slices cheese
Additional sauce, optional

Brown your ground beef halfway, about 3-4 minutes, in your large skillet then add in the chopped onions, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Cook the beef until fully browned, about 3-4 minutes, then add in the chopped pickles and stir. Mix the McDonald's Copycat Big Mac Sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well.

 

Add 1 cup of the secret sauce to the pan, reserve the rest for your buns. Cook 1 additional minute then serve on hamburger buns (stacking order in notes below). 

 

Stacking order from the bottom up (if doing a double decker bun)

1. Bun bottom
2. Secret Sauce
3. Lettuce
4. American Cheese
5. Meat
6. Bun Bottom
7. Secret Sauce
8. Lettuce
9. Pickles
10. Meat
11. Bun Top
    

 ***

Looking for other harvest - or summer - suppers? Here are a couple more tried and true recipes:

Hawaiian Sloppy Joes recipe

Chipotle Sloppy Joes

 

Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes

 

 

Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese

 

Cheesy Pull-Apart Sliders

 

Hideaway Harvest Surprise

 

Some women get excited about little blue boxes from jewelry stores.

I get excited about little blue eggs discovered in wheat stubble. 

(I guess I wouldn't know whether I'd be just as excited about Tiffany jewelry boxes. But, honestly, I doubt it.)

I took Randy to the field after an early lunch last Friday so he could get started cutting again. As I was turning around to leave, he excitedly waved me over.

"Look what I found!" 

Near the driveway, there was a small nest nestled in wheat stubble. The wheat there had already been cut. But the nest survived.

I moved a few wheat heads over for a photo op to give some context.

 

And when I got back to the house, I messaged my wildlife friend, Pam, asking what kind of nest it might be.

2016, Kim's County Line photo

She thinks it's belongs to a Dickcissel. I've misidentified that same bird in the past, thinking it was a meadowlark, but another Facebook friend pointed out my mistake. 

2019, Kim's County Line photo

They are frequent flyers in our area. I've taken a couple of photos of them as we've fixed fence or been checking pastures. 

Pam told me, "They have unmarked blue eggs and nest in grasses or very low shrubs." Well, wheat is sort of like that, I thought.

I did a little more research about Dickcissels, looking up information on Cornell Lab's All About Birds. I didn't feel so badly about my earlier misidentification, when the Cornell site said that the "chunky grassland bunting is colored like a miniature meadowlark, with a black V on a yellow chest."

The best place to find Dickcissels is in overgrown pastures, savannahs, and croplands in the central Great Plains. ... Their song is fairly short but hard to miss, a clicky buzzing dick-dick-ceessa-ceessa. Watch for males sitting on barbed wire fences, posts, and shrubby trees as they launch into song over and over again.   

Throughout the year Dickcissels require grassland habitats, but they are rarely picky about those habitats. In the summer months they are most common in native prairies and restored grasslands, but they also nest in lightly grazed pastures, hayfields, fallow agricultural fields, and even fence rows and roadsides. Female Dickcissels build the nest, a bulky cup woven out of weeds and grasses. The interior is often lined with fine grass and, sometimes, hair.

Egg Length: 0.8-0.9 in

Egg Width: 0.6-0.7 in

Incubation Period: 12-13 days

Nesting Period: 8-10 days

Egg Description: Unmarked, pale blue

Cornell Lab's All About Birds website

It's kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. Whether the mother finds the nest again, I don't know. But it was still exciting to find our miniature treasure among our "amber waves of grain."

To hear a Dickcissel sing and see it in a natural habitat, click on this link from Cornell.