Our harvesting business is made up of lots of different duties and activities. Following is a brief description and pictorial view of what Custom Harvesting is all about:
Springtime is a very important time because we are busy setting up the new combines and headers for this year that we picked up at the factory. Service trucks and support equipment are inspected and necessary repairs made. We also build any new equipment or make modifications that our needed.
Pre-Harvest
Everyone is busy making last minute updates and preparations to tweak each combine and piece of equipment for this years run. New crew members are arriving and we are getting to know each other. Training starts shortly after their arrival.
Equipment must be loaded on our special trailers to move to each place that we harvest. Combines are loaded, headers are folded up on trailers, and the bunkhouse is made ready for the move.
Moving day is a very tense time for all. Our equipment is loaded and moved in a caravan mode with our oversized loads to our next harvest customer. Moves range from 100 miles to nearly 900 miles.
Everyday we have a scheduled routine of servicing the combines and trucks. Not the most fun thing about the summer, but very important to assure that the combines run and we do a good job for our customers.
This is the most fun of all the things that we do. All the different things from unloading on the go into the grain karts to cutting a 1000 acre field.
Once the crop is harvested we have several trucks available to haul the crop from the field to the location desired by the farmer. All are late model Kenworth's that range in capacity from 700 bushels to approximately 1,000 bushels.
The crew enjoys eating a good breakfast, a filling lunch, and a full cooked hot evening meal.
The least enjoyable thing we do. We pride ourselves in the clean, well maintained, impressive look of our operation. Customers do care about the impression that their harvest crew leaves in their hometown. Therefore, we work hard to accomplish this.
