Guest correspondent Emma Misener checks in from near the Canadian border. The Misener crew cut for several days before encountering green wheat. The delay in wheat harvest meant the crew moved to Canola. Emma talks about the oil crop and how they harvest it up north.

We finally made it to Rolla, North Dakota, just 10 miles from the border of Canada.  David and Verena arrived a few days before the rest of the crew because Verena’s parents, Franz-Josef and Beatte, came to visit from Germany.  August 18, Dad, Mom, Dan, and I arrived with our last load. We brought three combines, the tractor and cart, and of course our campers. We started cutting that evening.

Our working hours begin to change as we come north. We start later and wrap up sooner because of dew, and the cooler temperatures are a factor as well. The moisture was around 16-percent, which is high, but we can’t wait. Unlike the southern states, the Dakota’s don’t get warm enough for the dew to burn off and the lack of hot weather make it difficult. The farmer we’re cutting for have drying bins so we are able to dry the wheat down to where it needs to be. They also have a drying system to put on the floor of Quonsets, or sheds, which create airflow to dry the grain that is stored. The wheat is averaging 50 to 60 bushels per acre, 15 percent moisture with test weights around 60 pounds. The protein is also great.

We cut wheat five days before we ran into green wheat. Some farmers sprayed the wheat with Round-Up to help speed up the drying process in the field before we arrived, but rainy days delay that process too. To keep moving we moved on to Canola.

Canola may be a new crop for some of the AAWH followers so there are photos of it below. Farmers have to swath it when it’s just starting to turn brown, because you can’t cut it straight.** You would lose too much grain if we did this. Canola has frail pods that can snap open (shatter) causing loss. We then pick up the windrowed canola with pick-up heads. Pick-up heads are rubber belts with fingers that spin toward the combine to guide it into the combine. The canola seed is round, black in color and no larger than mustard seed. It is an oil crop, so you may recognize the name canola. The oil can be just canola oil, or they can blend it with vegetable oil as well. The moisture of the canola we cut was an ideal eight percent. Canola isn’t measured in bushels, but pounds per acre. This field averaged 1,500 to 1,800 tons per acre, which is good for this area.

Franz-Josef helped us run the third combine while he was here. That helped us out because we are usually short of help this time of year. Verena’s parents left last Friday, but Sonja, Dad’s sister, came to help out. She’ll be with us until we’re ready to go to the John Deere Fall Festival in Waterloo, Iowa.

I hope that we’ll be able to harvest either wheat or canola tomorrow. We’ll be praying for some sunshine. Next time I update you all, we’ll hopefully be headed to Iowa.

**There are two different varieties of Canola, Polish and Argentine. Producers can straight cut Polish, but not Argentine.

Be safe and God bless!



Moving from near Watertown, South Dakota to Rolla, North Dakota. Mom with the camper, Dad with a combine and header trailer, Dan with a combine, and me with a grain trailer.

Moving day is not without its trouble again.

Dad and Dan putting the new tire on. I think we've fixed more tires this year than we have the past five years.

Dad striking out a new land of wheat to cut. We're dropping the straw because he wants to bale it up.

The balers came right behind us in the field. Not something you see every day.

Left to right, Dan with Alexander, Dad, David and Verena. Starting on canola now.

Harvesting canola.

Unloading canola onto the grain cart. It's interesting unloading at night, because of its black color.

To speed up the drying process, some farmers cut the wheat down and put it in windrows. We pick it up just like the canola; with pick-up heads.

Nearly dusk and the wind is starting to die down.

My Aunt Sonja harvesting wheat.

Dan unloading the farmer we're working for.

For more information contact crew@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2010 Wheat Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.

The 2010 All Aboard Wheat Harvest Tour is wrapping up. We are asking our loyal followers to tell us what you think. This is your opportunity to express your opinions about the program, and ways we can improve your harvest experience.

Please take a few minutes to fill out a simple survey. The survey is anonymous and will be used to better the program in 2011.

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Thanks for following the harvest crews!

For more information contact crew@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2010 Wheat Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.

Guest correspondent Scott Clark checks in for the last time this wheat harvest. Scott has returned to Oklahoma State, but Clark Farms continues harvest efforts in the upper Midwest.

Clark Harvesting has been busy harvesting canola, an oil seed crop, for the past couple weeks while waiting on the green wheat crop to mature enough to be harvested. Canola is first swathed into windrows to be picked up with a pickup header once the tough stalks have dried down, but this client had us straight-cut his crop with the same headers we use for cutting wheat.

Harvesting the canola while it’s still standing is slow going, as the tall plant is still green and the combines struggle to feed, thresh, and separate the small seeds. The desired canola seed is about the size of the point on an ink pen. We harvested with the farmer, so seven machines knocked out the large canola crop rather quickly. Yields ran about 45 bushels per acre and the test weight was around 52 pounds per bushel.  

When the crew moved to wheat, the moisture was under 13 percent and they were able to begin harvesting. The wheat yields were in excess of 60 bushels per acre, and test weights were running 60 to 61 pounds per bushel. The North Dakota wheat harvest has been drawn out for most due to green wheat, but we were lucky to be able to stay busy with the canola harvest. By September 10, our crews should be done with wheat harvest for the season but just beginning another.

For many it seems as if harvest is nearly wrapped up after a long, busy summer, but my family faces the toughest part of the job—the crew and family going their separate ways. Living on the road all summer and being apart all fall is just one of the sacrifices of a custom harvesting family. I have returned to college at Oklahoma State and survived a week of engineering courses; it almost feels as if my harvest is over as well. There is still work to be done even if we’re not in the field.

The end of wheat harvest for many crews marks the beginning of fall harvest. Harvesting three crops in the fall—corn, sorghum and soybeans—means more work. Crews are often split harvesting corn in one field and soybeans in another. For Clark Farms, fall harvest is always fast paced with more equipment and men required to complete the job. Since June, we have harvested 4,000 acres per machine—about half of the season ending total. The crew will harvest in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, and Minnesota this fall. The combines will be spread out over the upper Midwest this fall, and I will occasionally fly up and assist the crews in getting moved around from job to job. In December we’ll make the 800-plus-mile trip back to Kansas.

The All Aboard Wheat Harvest project has come to an end for me, and it has been an enjoyable experience working with the AAWH staff and being part of the program this summer. I would like to thank High Plains Journal, DuPont, and all the sponsors that make this possible. I would like to thank the readers for following me and my crew, as well as the other crews.

Since writing my first blog, I have been recognized by followers from all across the Midwest. It most definitely completes the experience for me to run into people far and near and have them recognize me on behalf of this project. The harvest trail and the equipment have changed drastically over the years, but in many ways the harvest is still the same and the people are a rare breed. I know that my parents and our harvesting friends and acquaintances are thankful for your appreciation as we continue to harvest the grain that feeds the world year after year.

School has to be my No. 1 priority now; even for a hard-working, custom combiner like me, the curriculum of an engineering student is a full-time job. It’s tough to depict the harvest lifestyle to someone unless they’ve witnessed it themselves, but it is an opposite lifestyle when you leave the harvest trail.

Thanks to everyone again and God bless!

A picture from last fall of our machines harvesting soybeans.

 A combine harvests over the rolling plains.

 Corn harvest will begin for us in just a few weeks.

For more information contact crew@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2010 Wheat Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.