Fort Benton, Montana: After everyone made the journey to Montana, we combined one cart full of wheat, then rain fell and kept us from combining for the first few days up here. It didn’t bother me, I was ready for a break and some time to catch up after moving and getting our entire crew together. We have been split up most of the summer in smaller crews, so it’s great to be back all in one place.
The weather has been very different this year. Usually when we get here, it doesn’t rain, and we work pretty much every day until we’ve completed all our jobs. This year it has been much cooler, and we have had more rain than I’ve ever seen out here. We’ve had to deal with mud, which is very rare here. Paul had to have the cart pull two trucks out because the roads just wouldn’t firm up. I’m curious to see if we’ll continue to see rain, or if it’ll start getting hot as it usually is here.
The wheat here is doing well so far. By Carter, wheat is averaging 65 to 75 bushels per acre. Our farmer chose a different variety of wheat this year. It has a little stronger stalk, and has made thrashing a little tougher, but it’s nice that it’s standing well and is better than cutting wheat that is down.
Patrick started on wheat between Fort Benton and Geraldine. Wheat there averaged about 75 bushels per acre. He then moved to field peas by Highwood, and they have averaged about 35 to 40 bushels per acre. There are a lot of rocks that have been a bit of a nuisance, so we’re glad to be done with peas for the moment. Patrick will get switched back over to wheat today.
With everyone together, we have the largest crew for us to date to feed. We have 27 crew members. My niece came out this year to help myself and my mother-in-law. I’m really glad she’s here, because it has made meals so much easier to deliver to our crews who are currently split four ways at the moment. In years past, there have been a lot of times I was the only cook here, and meal deliver could take anywhere from two and half to three hours at times depending on how the machines were split up. It doesn’t give you much time to do much else when making and taking two meals a day. So, I am really grateful for the help this year.
Having just gotten started around Fort Benton, we still have a great deal of acres to cover. It’s great to see crops looking good. Hopefully the rain will start to subside, and the temperatures will turn up so we can keep moving.
Thank you to our 2025 All Aboard Wheat Harvest sponsors: High Plains Journal, New Holland, Merit Auctions, Oklahoma Wheat Commission, Kramer Seed Farms and U.S. Custom Harvesters.
