Harvest USA Report

Sugar Beet Harvesting Operations Zeb is running three semi-trucks with 38-foot live-bottom chain-floor trailers near Johnstown, Colorado, after completing work in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The trucks haul beets to a ground pile, from which the sugar plant's own trucks transport them roughly 50 miles to the processing facility. Yields are reportedly in the 30-ton range but vary by field. A key challenge is temperature management, as beets must not exceed around 50 degrees when piled, causing operations to shut down or route loads directly to the plant during warm weather. Field conditions near Denver are currently favorable due to clay soil packed by adequate moisture, unlike muddier conditions reported by contacts in Minnesota.  

Here's our co-host David Woodruff with our guest Brandon Roland from Hemingford, Nebraska, talking about sunflowers and wind danger today.   When I was a kid we did sunflowers a couple years. Nobody had pickup reels, and vats on the combine reels, and what there's something like five and a half, six inches, and he doubled it to about 12 or 14 or something like that, and that seemed to work a little better, and it seems like that was just for sunflowers. Now, using a pickup reel, I guess you don't have to worry about stuff like that, or do you? What's your experience?   "Nope, not too much, but most of the time, or 99% of the time, I'll use an all crop head, and that's what I use for sunflowers, and normally even if I have a poorer corn crop, I'll run in with an all crop head as well. Well, this year with the corn being so low for what years that came up, I couldn't even get low enough with my all crop head. Where I have some irrigated sunflowers in my all crop head, it will just blow through, but thing too, I always get worried with sunflowers, it's when the wind starts picking up, they'll shut you down. Where even last year I was, we were in a high, high fire warning, and man, the wind would blow night and day over 30 mile an hour wind gusts, and the fire department nicely told me they didn't legally shut me down, but they nicely said after 30 miles an hour, they wanted me to be shut down for the day for wind gusts, because if a fire comes, they go, you're going to be the last one we're going to be worried about. They go, if a fire comes up, you get a field on fire, we're going to have to be worried about getting out the county, like you're on your own, so it's nice when you have a local fire department like that that will work with you."   That's it for today's Harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening, and may God bless.

"You know it's a bad year Dave, when I'm using a draper header to cut corn."   Oh my goodness.   "Yep, to just mow it to the ground and what little ears are on there. Going through with a 45-foot draper header is what I've been doing the last few days to just try to get anything off that I can."   So somebody that I've talked to said they took the big tires off the combines and put duals on to go between the rows to save the rubber because the corn stalks are so hard on rubber. Now when you when you use a draper header does that does that cut them down enough so that it's easier on tires or is it still two inches is going to hurt you?   "It's not bad where what really would eat my tires it's on super singles and sunflowers. Sunflowers will absolutely eat up a pair of super singles unless you have something stopper to stomp down where your tires are but that's the only real issue I ever run into with super singles and sunflowers it is rough on them."   And the corn's not quite as bad as sunflowers then?   "Yep, corn's not that bad. Even this year too there's some of the dry land sunflowers I'll be using my draper header on those as well just to try to get anything off of it that I can. Like I said it's a bad year when you're using a 45-foot draper just to get over the ground where more or less I'm just making tracks. This was a terrible year I'll tell you right now to put in a contract. When I have a contract out with corn and I don't have the other fields that are going to make it I'm basically having to cut everything just to get as close to my contract as I can."

Drought and Crop Conditions The Nebraska Panhandle is experiencing an exceptionally dry year. Irrigated corn is yielding around 150 to 200 bushels per acre, below expectations, while dryland corn is producing as little as three bushels per acre against a normal target of 60 and a breakeven point of 30 to 40 bushels. Some irrigated fields faced water allocation restrictions, forcing farmers to choose which fields to keep watered. The ground is so dry that four inches of rain was absorbed within three days, allowing Brandon to return to planting wheat almost immediately. Harvest Challenges and Equipment Because dryland corn grew so short and sparse, Brandon has resorted to using a 45-foot draper header to cut it to the ground and salvage whatever yield he can toward fulfilling a grain contract. He also plans to use the draper header on poor dryland sunflowers. Sunflowers present additional risks, particularly damage to super-single tires from tough stalks and the constant fire hazard from their oily, dusty residue, which can smolder with little warning.

Remembering Brad Heil...     Five whole years. Time is weird. It feels like five seconds, five years and five decades — all of them. Regardless of which it feels like at that instant, Brad is always missed.     “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep“ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 ESV).

Let's take a look at where some of our harvest crews are and what's going on in the harvest world here in this late fall season.   Twin Pine Farms LLC writes, "As we continue to roll through this year's harvest, here's a glimpse of Andy's view from the grain cart a few days ago. If you look real close, you'll see a seven-year-old Brooks behind the wheel of Big Red. And doing pretty good."   Never too early to train my replacement, they said. That's right, it must be something else to be a custom harvester kid, driving million-dollar machinery at seven years old.    Frederick Harvesting says, It's getting to that time of the year again. It's time for us to start hiring for the 2027 season. If experiencing a harvest in the USA and seeing some of the Midwest is something that's been on your list to do, then we are now taking applications. A good attitude to work, both as a team and alone, is essential. We look forward to hearing from you. That's from Frederick Harvesting. They're hiring.   And Bashutski Harvesting said that the crew headed back south last weekend from the corn harvest, only to be welcomed by rain. That's just the kind of year it's been. With a couple days off, they got to go to the CNF Fargo plant, where they manufacture the Case IH Steiger four-wheel drive quad track tractors.   And don't forget the Wheats on Your Mind podcast from Kansas Wheat. Technology is changing how farmers operate. On this episode of Wheats on Your Mind, host Aaron Harries visits with Kansas farmer Ray Flickner about his experience in Ukraine and the innovative technologies being tested on his farm to improve efficiency and profitability. That's from Kansas Wheat.    That's going to do it for today's news. That's going to do it for today's Harvest USA report.

Talking irrigation upgrades with Jackson Woodruff

Talking Garlic today on the Harvest USA with Taber, Alberta Community Garden Head Honcho Andy Puskas.   Let's listen in...

Andy Paskus of the Tabor, Alberta community garden discussed the end of the growing season and preparations for next year. The garden has been “put to bed,” with soil worked and 1,400 garlic cloves planted for harvest next July. A local Grade 5 class helped with the planting. The garden is now in its planning and reporting phase for the winter.   A major focus of the conversation was garlic and asparagus. Puskas explained that garlic must be planted in the fall, overwinters in the ground, and is harvested the following summer. Each clove produces a full bulb, and the garden is growing two varieties this year. Asparagus is entering its fourth year in the ground, and next spring will be the first harvest, likely beginning in late April or early May depending on moisture and weather.   The discussion also touched on the garden’s location and soil history. Puskas said old aerial photos suggest the garden site itself has remained largely untouched since the 1950s and was not reclaimed mining land, though mining occurred nearby. Recent soil testing showed the land is slightly low in nitrogen and phosphorus but otherwise in good condition, needing only minor improvement for next season.