Wheat Harvest

[Howard H.]

In case anyone is curious how wheat harvest is progressing out here on the High Plains, here are some pics from this week:

The first is a typical irrigated field, the second is my youngest in a field of dryland for reference (probably 3-4 out of 10 years, dryland wheat won't even make out in this arid country), and the last are custom cutters Dad hired. They have 3 9760 John Deeres and can wipe out a quarter section (160 acres) in a couple of hours.

I felt sorry for the cranky neighbor who broke down right next to them in his old 105 John Deere and was trying to work on his machine in their dust...

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[4435]

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[Anonymous-0]

Looks like a pretty good crop to me. We had a late cold spell here in KY that really hurt most of our wheat. Of course we don't have to much in this part of the country. Were is this?

 

[Moline_guy]

Great pictures, looks like you have a great crop coming in and with wheat prices a profitable year. If you don't mind my asking what is the yield difference between irragated and the dry land, they both look good. I read somewhere that there is a lot of water restrictions coming on the last few years, can you irragate as much as you want or are you restricted also? take care.

 

[Howard H.]

Sorry! This is in the Oklahoma Panhandle (the little strip of OK that used to be called No Man's Land).

It is part of the High Plains - flat arid country from West Texas near Amarillo on up north through eastern Colorado, western KS, and further north. Most of the ground is irrigated if the land has the water under it, dryland if it doesn't.

A lot of the poor guys further east of us in big wheat country have had a terrible time with Hessian fly infestations, a very hard late freeze, too much late rain, etc, but we've been very blessed this year - with a huge snow in the winter and pretty timely rains this spring.

We usually average about 18 inches of moisture a year. Often 2-3 inches of that comes in a 20 minute drenching.

Dad is pushing 80 and said it's one of the best wheat years he's ever seen - WITH the price being good...

 

[Howard H.]

We've pumped a LOT of water with the old 605 and HD 800 Molines!

Typical irrigated out here will run from 60-90 bushels. You hear coffee shop talk of 100, but an old custom cutter told me one time HE'D never cut any that good.

Dryland is ranging from 20-50 bushels this year, but last year for example, Dad didn't cut a single stalk on 900 acres of planted dryland ground. That was the first time he'd ever been completely shut out on wheat, but it was a really terrible year.

Test weights have been running just a little under 60 lbs per bushel.

 

[Howard H.]

No - we aren't metered here in OK on water, but I think the KS folks are in areas and they are just starting that in TX. Not sure if they will be limited or just measured in TX.

The main limitation here is how much fuel bill can you stand per well!! A lot of guys are paying $4000-$6000 per well per month, since natural gas has gone up. Plus, a lot of the wells sure don't produce like they use to - 300-500 gallons per minute is typical.

 

[Anonymous-0]

It is becoming quite arid here. We are way below normal on rain. Hay was about 1/3 short, wheat is no good, tobacco is fairing pretty good, but it is a dry weather crop for the most part,corn is curled up,pasture is really going south in a hurry. I am glad someone has a good crop. I suspect the tobacco to be OK, we will irrigate it if necessary. Not the easy way though. I will have to pack 5 inch pipe through the mud. I hate that job worse than any on the farm. A few folks here have traveling guns, but I still use stationary guns and sprinklers some. The worse we had was in 83. We packed pipe around the clock for 61 days. Sucked 13 ponds dry and lowered several more a bunch. I have been lucky and haven't watered any for 3 or 4 years. I don't raise near as much as I use to, labor cost got to eating it up, so now I raise only what we can handle ourselves. About 15 acres. I have a couple hundred acres of corn and almost that much in beans, but make more on baled hay than either of those. Going to cut way back on everything except tobacco next year. The boy's have gotten jobs in town and won't help much anymore and I can't do it all without them. I don't care much, my place is paid for so I don't need to much. I have 90 cows to retire on kinda.

 

[Tim...OK]

Great pics Howard,thanks.. between the late freeze and too much rain,10 bushel is good on the east side of the state..the barge terminal at catoosa generally unloads 200 trucks a day when harvest is in full swing..this year it's been more like 10 trucks a day..

Tim

 

[dhermesc]

I'v been all over the eastern half of Kansas and the wheat harvest isn't going to amount to much. A lot of it was cut for hay and what is left probably should have been. The three day freeze (lows in the single digits and teens) in late April really knocked the crap out of it.

 

[Anonymous-0]

When I farmed near Holyoke, Co years ago we always counted on wheat harvest being around July 4. Corn was always "knee high by the 4th" then but I'm sure it's shoulder high now days. I miss wheat harvest as that was my favorite farm activity next to summer fallow.