wheat harvest in kansas Nebraska

When does wheat harvest usually start in kansas and Nebraska? And does anybody on here grow alot of wheat? I'd love to some day go out for a day or two and help someone with wheat after our road trip last fall I think it would be something to work in some of those big fields! If you were ever in western pa and seen our 1 to 5 acer fields I guess you would no know why they amaze me! Just thinking!

Brian:
Here in Louisiana , our farmers will cut wheat in the next two weeks . Our fields are circumscribed by bayous , levees and trees . Therefore the expanse of wheat will not be like the Plains . I don't farm but come on down. Somebody , I suspect, will let you help.

I would guess Alan in Nebraska is one of the larger wheat farmers on here. They won't start cutting wheat in his area until late June at the earliest. I used to farm for a family out in Colorado, and they had a field that was 2600 acres. Farmed nearly 75000 acres at that time.

If you want to drive truck for a large operation they will require that you have a CDL because all of their trucks will be over the 26,000 lbs. limit, whether they are tandems or semi's.

Better be ready to move quick when it starts!! ha...

When I was a kid, helping Dad with harvest with our old JD 105, harvest would last for 6 weeks or so - and Mom would bring dinners to the field to save time as we plodded along with a 250 bushel truck and a small header on the combine...

Nowadays, crews pull in with multiple machines that move 6 mph with 40 foot headers and a squadron of semis and the wheat disappears in a hurry!


Howard

southern NE in the eastern part of the state is about july 1. I live at dorchester and have a custom cutter harvest mine!

In the Center of Kansas, harvest usually starts around 20th or so of June. Depends on the weather.

Up until my Dad passed away in 2006 we harvested approximately 1500 - 3000 acres of wheat. My Dad usually had 1000 or so acres, and my Uncle usually had 1500 - 2000 acres. They cut together. The lunches in the field my Mom and Aunt would prepare were fit for Kings.

I can remember back in the 70's, cutting with a JD95 and JD105 and three trucks. Usually back then the local elevators were within 3 or 4 miles or so away. Now most of the little local elevators have shut down and you have to haul quite a bit farther. Back then we would cut for about 2 - 3 weeks and then start helping the neighbors that had not got finished. I can remember getting sick of harvest. My Dad and Uncle believed in being in the field by 7:00am or so to start servicing combines and eqt. I always got the job of fueling and washing cab windows, once cabs were in the picture. They also believed in staying until the elevators were closed, and all the trucks and grain carts were full. Sometimes if the wind was blowing, we could cut until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.

Later on, with the larger combines, it cut the time in half, or even better. One of the reasons my Brother and I decided to quit farming this year was due to the local elevators closing down. We were going to drastically have to upgrade our trucks to go the farther distance to dump. Very few on the farm storages around here for wheat. Bob

'Way back when, one year when I rented our family farm from my mother, wheat harvest started in late June. I got rained out one Thursday afternoon. The next day, Friday, we left for Brooklyn, Michigan for a Winston Cup stock car race and got back on Monday afternoon.

Resumed wheat harvest Tuesday. It turned out OK, and nothing was lost, but it was a long time before Mom let me forget that caper.

Oh yeah, I grew up in NW PA. It took me a long time to get to where I could judge acres in a field.

Many of the local guys here in Ohio quit owning combines and trucks and have it all custom harvested. Some even hire the planting too.

Where at in pa in 20 miles east of clarion on 80 around brookville

Gezzz 75000 acres ,,can you even see across it. Now thats alot of land to harvest. I bet it looks amazing to see the wheat blowing it the wind on that

I'm in SW PA. Farm is in New Florence, I live in Uniontown and work In Waynesburg.

We use to cut about 500 acres each year in the southeast corner of the Nebr panhandle. Sold the farm in 2007. pictures taken in 1951 and 2001.

I farm 1000 acres but will only have around 300 in wheat to cut. Two years ago I was in the field the second of June (a first for me) but have spent my birthday (June 19) and the Fourth of July in the field. I have two semis and a straight truck and a JD 9500. There are still three elevators within 10 miles of here. I remember when they stayed open until 11pm. No longer. If you are lucky they might stay open until 6 for you. It takes the rest of the night to fill up all of the trucks anyway. I only run a 22 foot header because of the bridges and narrow field access in spots.

I love harvest. There is nothing I love more. Specifically, wheat harvest. It sometimes takes up to two weeks depending on the acres I have planted but I wouldn't trade it. Even when things break down.

Growing up harvest was a lot more work. We had a Massey Super 92 combine and a 65 Ford F600 truck. We worked like slaves to get that crop out. I have no idea how I didn't come to hate it, but my love for the time started way back then. Maybe it is the race against the odds and the prayer you say every time you
go to the elevator. Lord, please let this load be dry, the weight be high, and the probe hit the cleanest spot in this load.

It seems like we were usually cutting in the Garden City area on July 4 but sometimes we were in Sterling Co and Ogallala Ne by the fourth. Mineola is earlier than Garden and Dighton and Dodge City are earlier than Garden though Dighton is farther north and Dodge is farther east from Garden. If you drive through that area during harvest and see some combines, stop and ask if you can ride along. A lot of the cutters like a break in the boredom. If you can manage to travel HWY 96 in central and western Kansas during the peak of the harvest you will see more combines being hauled down the road than you have seen in your life, along with some stupid bicyclists who decide to have their annual ride across Kansas facing those 14 foot wide combines hanging over the shoulder. (Editorial note)

I like your comments when growing up, I am older than you, because we had a 5 ft AC combine, 15 bushel bin, pulled by a JD"B". Hauled with a wagon, 1/2 ton pickup. The good old days!!

In the early 50's in seem like because of price supports you was allow only so many acres of wheat. Dad could plant 15 acres and they come out and measured it. Made him pretty mad when the government told him he had to destroy 10 feet along one side of the field to stay below the 15 acres. Back then it was the neighbors Massey Harris Clipper pulled by a JD A. Would get three to four pickup loads in a afternoon.