Agricultural News
Oklahoma Crew Rolling with the Flow of 2015 Wheat Harvest
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 20:35:06 CDT
The hot, dry, windy days allowed for harvesters to make a lot of progress over the past week. Since harvest started, Bachand Harvesting of Hastings, Oklahoma sat idle for more than three weeks, then they cut for nine days, before sitting for another week due to Tropical Storm Bill. Dennis Bachand says it's been a challenging harvest.
"We started out with a pretty good crop in southern Oklahoma and north Texas, but after 25 to 30 inches of rain, there's not much left," Bachand said. "What we got cut, is cut. What's left standing, probably not going to be very good."
With the arrival of Tropical Storm Bill last week, Bachand said he still has 1,100 acres of his own to harvest. With wheat fields under water, they had to move on with the hope of returning when it dried out.
Bachand said initially the wheat crop was yielding well around 50 bushels, but yields dropped with a lot yielding 20 to 30 bushels an acre. He said there was some good quality wheat. He had some with a 60 pound test weight, but they also had a lot around 55 pounds. Bachand said the elevator was taking the wheat, but they were docked for the lower test weight.
"Being a harvest and a farmer, you know what both ends of it feel like," he said.
With the ongoing rains, sprouting became a bigger issue through harvest. Bachand said they started out with three percent and the worst field had five percent. After Tropical Storm Bill, he could see it getting as high as 30 to 40 percent on his remaining wheat.
Radio Oklahoma Network's Leslie Smith caught up with Bachand Saturday, as his crew was moving their equipment to Kansas. With a harvest crew of 15, the six combines were in three states. Their crew was harvesting in Spearman, Texas, Enid, Oklahoma and Scott City, Kansas. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
After several tough years of drought, Bachand said he feels grateful to have something to harvest.
"It's nice this year to have more places, more options," he said. "It's nice to be behind, instead of praying for something to do."
In looking ahead, Bachand Harvesting will move on to harvest wheat in eastern Colorado, western Nebraska and northern Montana.
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