Harvest USA Report

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.

We're talking to Shorty Kulhanek, Colby, Kansas and McGargle, Texas.

Hello David.

How does it look like the corn is going to do?

A lot of it really got hurt with the weather when we was here this summer. There was a lot of corn disaster, didn't put on any ears and it's got some short ears, small ears, it's got some decent ears. It's just a guess, it's not going to be the best crop by no means.

Yeah.

Where they got rain, yeah, it'll be alright.

We had a real nice field on my school bus run and then the lady said well it got disastered out with hail and they got looking at it again. After that it didn't look near as good. I think it's going to be cow pasture.

Right.

Got rain down in Texas and Oklahoma so those guys can plant wheat. If they had it planted, well it'll grow now.

Oh that's good.

It's been a long time waiting for some moisture down there.

Oh yes. I was hearing on the radio we got an El Nino going out in the Pacific and it's really got a, really got a mad on it. It's supposed to be tropics up here in this country come December to February.

Right.

Well thank you so much sir. I sure do appreciate it.

Same here David, take care.

Hey everyone, this is Brian Hale. If you've heard this program before, you know I have been offering website help for many years. In fact, we've been in the business for over 20 and we'd love to help you for anything website related, even if you just need some advice. It's free. Email support at HaleMultimedia.com or call 940-224-6315.  Portfolio, pricing and contacts all on HaleMultimedia.com. That's going to do it for today's Harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.

Interview with Shorty Kulhanek

A farm operator reported finishing soybean harvest near Gettysburg and north of Agar, South Dakota. Despite limited rainfall, soybean yields ranged from about 32 to 47 bushels per acre, which was considered fairly good given the dry conditions.

The crew planned to switch from soybeans to corn harvest in the same area. While some corn has already been harvested in South Dakota, much remains in the field because it has not dried down enough yet, rather than because of recent rain.

Corn prospects appear mixed to poor in many fields. Weather damage during the growing season hurt yields, with some corn producing no ears, and other fields showing short or small ears. Fields that received enough rain may still do reasonably well, but overall expectations are below average.

The conversation also noted improved moisture in Texas and Oklahoma, which should help newly planted wheat grow. A brief mention was made of El Niño, with speculation that it could bring unusually mild winter conditions in the coming months.

Let's check in with our co-host David Woodruff and see who he has today. We're talking to my youngest son Byron Woodruff. He works for LeRon Torrie Sons Farm. Go ahead with the corn.

The other silage corn, as I was pulling the guys out, I was asking them how the other fields of silage corn had been going. And they said most of their fields that they have been doing all around the area were just like this, where they needed a tractor there. For them, it's been a very long drawn-out process to get all their fields done. And I think they still have a few more to do. But the three inches of rain set us back about three weeks. And I'm sure for them it's probably been at least that or more so.

And they chop right straight into, what, 53-foot trailers?

Yeah, something like that. Do they have any tri-drive trucks or are they all tandems?

It looked like they were all tandem. Yeah, another axle would have been nice.

Yeah, another axle on a trailer doesn't, I don't suppose it pulls much better, but another axle driving would be nice. You got edible dry beans like Great Northern?

Oh yeah, I think we did some Great Northerns, Pintos, Yellows. Yeah, that's what I'm hauling in today. And the rain must have slowed that down. Yeah, well and we're fairly new to beans and just getting the process going and getting used to our machines. And it's a bit of a learning curve. And we've had some problems with some machines that we've had to rebuild and do two different things with. But we're slowly figuring it out. But yeah, the rain didn't help. It was a trip, I'll tell you that.

That was Byron Woodruff with our co-host David Woodruff talking about the fall harvest.

We'll have more from them on the two methods that they're using out there to pick up those beans on tomorrow's report. You can find all these harvest reports on HarvestUSAReport.com or any podcast network.

That's going to do it for today's Harvest USA Report.

The conversation is an interview with Byron Woodruff about the farm’s harvest season. This year’s crops included silage corn, lentils, wheat, canola, grain corn, and edible dry beans such as Great Northerns, pintos, and yellows.

Overall, the early part of harvest went fairly well, but yields for wheat and other grains were lower than hoped, possibly because of light hail earlier in the season. Later, about two to three inches of rain significantly slowed harvest and stretched the season out by roughly three weeks.

Silage corn harvest was especially difficult because wet field conditions caused trucks to get stuck repeatedly. A tractor had to remain on standby to pull them out, and some low, wet areas of the field were left unharvested, leaving a few acres of corn standing. Similar problems were reported in other nearby silage corn fields.

Grain corn harvest went more smoothly, with a partner farm completing it in a single day.

The farm is still relatively new to edible dry bean production, and the speaker described it as a learning process. Equipment issues, machine rebuilds, and the challenge of managing humidity during swathing and combining made bean harvest difficult. They experimented with both a one-step machine and regular swathers, but it was hard to determine whether one method was clearly better than the other.