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Article on Wheat and Custom Combining in the US

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    Article on Wheat and Custom Combining in the US

    I thought this article would be good for those without rain... to know we are not alone...

    Posted July 8, 2002 at;http://www.grandforks.com/mld/agweek/3620213.htm

    Combine blues

    Poor crops bedevil custom harvesters

    By Jerry W. Kram
    Agweek Staff Writer

    The wheat harvest continues to inch its way up the Great Plains and is followed by its steadfast companions, the custom harvesters. But this year, many are bypassing their usual customers in Kansas because much of this year's winter wheat crop has suffered weather damage and been plowed under.

    Less than 2 inches of precipitation fell near Kingman in south-central Kansas from September to May, says combiner Greg Koropatnicki, who farms near Walhalla in northeastern North Dakota. Then in June, a 9-inch cloudburst clobbered the few fields that managed to produce a harvestable crop.

    "Things are averaging about 25 bushels an acre with low test weights," Koropatnicki says. "Then we had about 9 inches of rain, so anything that hasn't been no-tilled or has been worked real heavy, you can't run on the ground. I suppose that on an average day I see 50 combines a day leaving the area. There's nothing worth cutting."

    While most of the land where he is working is terraced and well drained, there still were low spots and terrace edges that were keeping him out of the field when he spoke to Agweek in late June.

    "I was watching the fellows combining across the road from us, from one end of the field to the other they were sinking a foot and a half deep," he says.

    Koropatnicki, who has been on the custom combine trail for five years, says his customers have had just half the normal number of acres for him to harvest this year. In southern Oklahoma, he cut fields that yielded 60 bushels an acre and 10 bushels an acre, all for the same farmer.

    "It all depended where they got the rain," he says. "I suppose they averaged 25 to 35 bushels overall. But when we got to northern Oklahoma, they averaged 17 bushels with poor quality."

    In the panhandle of Nebraska, where Koropatnicki usually has 4,000 acres of work lined up, he only expects to harvest 1,700. Instead of the usual seven combines, he only will send three. He hears the winter wheat crop in Gettysburg, S.D., his next stop, is in poor shape as well.

    The situation is similar near Syracuse in southwestern Kansas, where Steve Wahl, who farms near Duttton, Mont., found farmers had plowed up about half of their wheat because of drought. Many harvesters pulled up stakes early or didn't stop at all on their way to what they hope will be better crops up north. Because few harvesters are left in the area, Wahl was able to find enough small jobs to have close to an average year.

    "Our farmer, he plowed up about half of his wheat crop," Wahl says. "I'm harvesting what's left and it's not yielding too bad, about 30 bushel to the acre. But most of his winter wheat didn't make it through the winter.

    "We've been able to pick up some extra, not a lot, maybe 1,500 extra acres. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that everybody is so spread out and they have send combines farther north to keep up with the harvest."

    Wahl, who has 20 years experience custom harvesting, says he hasn't seen crops this bad since the mid-1980s. He found good crops in Vernon, Texas, but things deteriorated as he went north. His next stop usually is in northeastern Colorado, but the wheat crop there has burnt up as well.

    "The mid- '80s were tough, but we didn't have the acres because we were just starting out," Wahl says. "In the years since we have been running three machines, we haven't lost this many acres before. It's unusual for us to lose so much in such a big area."

    Tough times

    Just because the combines aren't running doesn't mean harvesters' expenses aren't mounting. Workers still need to be paid, housed and fed while fields are drying out or jobs are being lined up.

    "Our daily expenses don't change all that much, except for the fuel a guy is burning and the parts we would have trouble with," Koropatnicki says.

    "Our insurance has gone up 17 percent this year," Wahl says. "Fuel is down a little bit over the last two years, but labor is up."

    Koropatnicki says many harvesters may decide that this will be their last trip south. The profits in custom harvesting aren't huge, and a year like this could push as many as a quarter of the combiners over the edge, he believes. He has heard secondhand that one insurance agent has lost about a quarter of his custom harvester clients this year.

    "You talk to guys around here and they don't know where they are going next," Koropatnicki says. "It's bad. It's not even close to what a guy anticipated. I'm afraid this year is going to weed out a lot of guys. "

    While hard times may reduce the number of harvesters, Wahl believes many will return with the next bumper wheat crop. He says many custom harvesters drop in and out of the business as economic conditions dictate.

    "When times get tough, a lot of them go under," Wahl says. "But when times pick up, they seem to come back. I have definitely seen a decline in the last few years and a lot of auction sales of harvesters selling out. But some guys will sell and then regroup. This year will thin a lot of them out. A lot of the big guys are hurting, but they're able to split their machines up and cover a wider area, too. The smaller guy like us can't."

    Wahl points out that custom harvesters aren't eligible for disaster assistance or insurance when they lose most of their business to floods and drought.

    "The farmers get assistance and they deserve it," Wahl says. "But it would be nice if the finance companies or even the government could help out the harvesters, too."

    The harvesters expect the tough times to continue as they head north. Koropatnicki hopes to make up some of his losses on the spring wheat harvest later this fall.

    "It just doesn't sound good the rest of the way on," Koropatnicki says. "I guess we'll have to rely on a good fall run. I'm trying to be optimistic, but it's bad."

    Wahl says recent rains near Dutton in the last month make him hopeful for a good spring wheat harvest.

    "We got 4 or 5 inches that are going to help that spring crop," he says. "There might be some spring crop to do up there if they can get another shot of rain the first part of July."

    #2
    Tom
    Was listening to KMON out of Great Falls last week when we were down south, They had a show on about Custom Combining and interviewed two operators. One was near Huron SD and he was combining anytning from 11 to 19 bushels but he said the test weight was poor and a lot had been baled for feed. The second fellow was from Oregon and they were 10-14 days away from harvest but he was predicting a poor crop.

    Idaho is in bad shape with a lot of their irrigation resevoirs almost empty and crops in that critical stage. I don't remember when so many people where being devasted by drought or is it just that we are bombarded with more available information today than in the past.

    As I type I am looking out the window to the north and see a few black clouds that in the old days would have given you a shower because you didn't need it but now we seem to get teased all the time and they just keep floating by.

    Comment


      #3
      Rodbradshaw,

      I talked to a neighbour who knows a farmer by Camrose with three brand new combines, and 100% of his crop is written off... he will not harvest a bushel...

      Some of our heavier land that is low lying will yeild 25-30 of wheat, maybe 30% of the farm... much of the rest looks like 10bu/ac... barley is all coming out the side of boot, but no desease, leaves still in tact, and some meat in the kernels now, barley may yeild the best if it doesn't burn up, it is on average about 10 inches tall...

      We will have to have calm days when we combine so we can pick off the heads... are looking at filling in pickup reels between fingers to sweep heads off the knife, does anyone know od kits that are avaliable to do this?

      Comment


        #4
        Tom4, Went through very droughty times during '80's. 3 or 4 years of 5 to 7 bu/ac. I installed a Keho air reel & found it worked quite well at clipping heads.

        Comment


          #5
          wedino,

          I see Keho has duck foot pickup fingers for pickup reels, when I was down at Taber yesterday...

          Can a person add solid plastic panels to fill in the reel, do you know of anything like the europeans have that is light and quick to put on and take off?

          We do have air reels, but they are for our small headers, but to do a good job of combining and baling one must get a decent feed of material, IE get as big a header as possible...

          Spend more money to save crop insurance some money... WHAT a DEAL...

          But at least a person can sleep at night, for those who don't have insurance it is a disaster, and I feel guilty not getting every bushel that is there because of my neighbours grief...

          Comment


            #6
            Tom4cwb
            I used to have a Cheney pickup reel that you just flipped the bats over and you had either a solid bat or a pickup reel. Puck board and small U clamps should be able to be used to rig up a pickup reel to make it more like a bat reel.
            Did you get any of this rain? I see Edmonton recorded 9 mm last night.

            Rod

            Comment


              #7
              Rod,

              Yes there was more rain, the 36 coridor had puddles in the feilds in places like Castor and Hanna, so things are a little better in central AB now...

              Spotty but .3" around in many areas...

              This will help things fill a little more, and wreck the fescue seed I just swathed... you just cannot satisfy farmers can you...!!!

              Comment

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