Scott Clark

I’ve been on the harvest trail for 20 years and this year I’ll return as a guest correspondent for All Aboard Wheat Harvest. My name is Scott Clark and I’m from Kiowa, Kan., and my crew is American Quality Harvesting, Inc.

It’s been a busy year for me, at Oklahoma State. I’m the president of the American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers and stay busy with other campus and community organizations. I guess you could say that keeping busy is just a product of being a custom harvester. This fall I’ll start my senior year at OSU where I study Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and Plant and Soil Sciences. I plan to work as a design engineer when I graduate from college – so I’m enjoying the harvest runs while I can with my family.

Our crew is managed by my dad, Kevin, who has 25 years of harvesting experience. We’ll have a crew of ten this season. I’ll be traveling some this summer for my internship with an agricultural equipment manufacturer, but I’ll still be sharing the harvesting experience with the All Aboard followers. I’ll be reporting on harvest conditions, crop yields, weather and logistics that our crew, encounter on their trek from Oklahoma to North Dakota.

Areas of Texas and Oklahoma have been drought stricken in the past months, so the crew is already off to an irregular start as they will likely not even begin harvesting until June in southern Kansas. Acknowledging unrest is just part of custom harvesting and Dad and his partners have decided to run three combines in the early part of the season to help reduce overhead and extra labor costs.

Weather has been on the minds of all of those in the wheat industry this year and the business of custom harvesting is highly dependent on Mother Nature. It has already influenced decisions heavily this year before ever getting a combine to the field.