We are gearing up for wheat harvest on the Schumacher farm.  The combines are making their visit to the shop for inspections and repairs.  The wheat has turned from beautiful green to various shades of gold and amber.  Trucks are being readied to take the harvested grain to town.

Wheat harvest has been almost a year in the making.  The wheat was planted last fall.  Our irrigated wheat and dryland wheat are different varieties that have been proven to produce the best in our given climate and farming practices.  Our wheat is not GMO, however it is selective trait.  Selective trait means that a field of wheat was grown and then treated with a specific chemical.  The wheat that tolerated the chemical went on to produce seed, and that seed is what we grow our crops from.  If we need to treat the field, we can use the chemical that the wheat tolerated, or has the selective trait for.

Some of you may be wondering why we treat, or spray, our wheat.  The main reason is for weed control.   Less weeds means there are less plants fighting for water and fertilizers.  This means that the wheat yields are higher.  The demand on farmers to produce more food is getting greater each day.  That wouldn’t be such a big deal if we had more and more land to grow food.  The reality is that the ground available for farming is slowly disappearing.  We must use every viable option to produce more food with less ground.

Now that the equipment is ready, all there is to do is wait.  The wheat has to dry in the field.  We choose to wait until the wheat is dry enough to harvest.  Some farmers will harvest their wheat when it is still moist and that requires them to use a drying bin or be charged fees at the elevator.  The elevator is a receiving and storage location for crops.  We have two elevators we will work with during our various harvests.  One elevator deals in main crops like our corn and wheat.  The other elevator specializes in edible beans which is a relatively small, specialized market.

Until the wheat is dry enough to harvest, we will be busy taking care of our other crops.  The corn and beans have to be irrigated.   The beans need sprayed for weeds.  We will be keeping an eye on the weather.  Right now hail is our biggest weather concern.  Hail is extremely damaging to crops.  Last year, we lost every crop on our farm to hail.  There is nothing we can do to prevent crop damage from hail.  We pray for rain and pray that hail does not come with it.