i'm here with brett parker and janie from parker harvesting
you have a custom combining operation can you explain a little bit more about that
yes we uh cut wheat from the red river texas oklahoma area up to uh sweetgrass montana and
then we cut a lot of pulse crops and yes you're actually going to be cutting our lentils today
yes we are we just got header calibrated and ready to go that's awesome thank you where are you from
we're from waterville kansas what states do you go through for the custom harvesting
um we cover texas oklahoma western kansas eastern colorado and uh montana we start in in the state
of montana we start in hardin and then we work up to geraldine and from geraldine fort benton we
come over here how long is the custom harvesting usually it's six months out of the year oh wow we
by the time you get everything ready and and uh hit the road you know we cut lentils
mustard chickpeas field peas garbanzo beans flax canola there's there's a lot of different
different crops and different ways to cut them some people will lay them in windrows
lentils are nice and dry we took a sample this morning and they're uh 11 moisture so
i think we'll get along just fine that's really great and so you must have a lot of different
headers for your combines go through all these different types of crops yes too many we've got
flex drapers and regular drapers and pickup heads wow stripper head corn head and row head the row
heads are now getting obsolete and we're going into an arrowhead like a converted corn head okay
we use that on milo there's a lot of different headers these days to keep up with all the crops
what is this header standing behind us this is a 40 foot flex draper with an air reel and
the air reel is necessary in these lentils because they they generally don't grow very tall oh they
don't that's really important and we don't have flex headers so that's right you got to cut them
pretty short as you can see right over here you know the lentils are probably only six to eight
inches tall and you have to cut them just right on the ground yes what's your favorite part about
the custom harvesting oh just all the good people we meet and all all our good customers we've uh
we've cut for your family for years off and on since you were little usually we're in montana for
35 to 45 days oh wow that's awesome yeah yeah it you know with the elevation differences the wheat
matures at different rates and now with all these pulse crops you can you can really stay in one
area and cut for a long time how many combines do you run seven oh wow yeah and we've got uh
got a few on the neighbors over here and there's going to be a couple more in here later today so
see if we can get these lentils in the bin before it rains again yes definitely i'm here with nora
as well and do you drive combine yes that is awesome you love it me too i drive combine
also yeah it's fun heck yes that's a lot of fun when the family can be involved and learn learn
a little bit about the equipment and the business definitely for sure helps on your people skills
well this is wonderful thank you so much yeah thank you thank you we're inside the combine
now what kind of combine is it it's an s770 john deere wow i've never seen a combine with
such big screens and technology pretty incredible could you explain a little bit about what they do
yes we can we can straight track you can curve track yield coverage and you know your moisture
and there's always you know some the pressures like on the flex headers you can always change
that however you need it and you know like the header will go down and float and so if
you go up over a rise it's gonna it's gonna ride with the contour of the ground yes that's it's
amazing yeah there's a lot of technology in in these newer combines but a lot to go wrong also
definitely it makes a lot more challenging what do you do when you have equipment breakdown do you
go to the local mechanics and john deere we fix it all ourselves wow generally on john deere combines
it'll just be the engine fan hubs we replace one of those every couple three weeks and other than
that it um you know most of the designs are pretty good these days the john deere combines yes they
really are and that's why we run them because they're reliable that's right yeah as a rule do
you mostly straight cut if a farmer calls you or would you have it swathed and then cut it you know
in in the state of montana that's the only place that we run pickup heads and it's about half and
half you know half of these farmers are raising varieties that that will stand but those varieties
that will stand good don't quite yield you know like as well yeah as well so um you know these
some of these other guys are planting varieties that really yield good but it's got to be put
in the windrow or else the sawfly's going to get it do you see that being a problem other places
or mostly here mostly just in montana i hear that they had some soft fly in nebraska this
year oh wow okay is it interesting to go from the different states and see the different harvests
and yield yes and uh you know a lot of times we have to sit and wait in montana for a day or two
on one place you know while we're finishing up another place that uh you know the temperature
is usually not there but this year is 100 degrees and we could uh just everything is ready as soon
as we got there yes it really was and we started a bit early heads didn't end up filling on a lot
of the weeds that's right yeah the spring crops a little bit short but yeah at least you got a crop
exactly we're very thankful for that how long have you been in the custom harvesting business
for i'm fourth generation oh that's wonderful and i'm fourth generation on the farm oh is that right
yeah yeah that's neat and then what generation are you for your family's farm uh number five
oh that's wonderful yeah they homesteaded that in 1868. okay wow our farm was homesteaded in 1912.
is that right yes okay took them a few years to get up here didn't it yes it did that's awesome
thank you so much yeah thank you how did your family decide to start custom harvesting i'm not a
hundred percent sure you know i don't know if they if they had to do it to generate some cash flow to
keep the farm afloat is my guess yes so that's one thing that we need anyway on our farm is
is all the machinery and all the help so it's one good way to justify it to keep it busy definitely
longer how long is your header 40 feet wow it's got the the p auger and the air reel i've never
seen a header like this oh really well we'll have more than one in the field here by tomorrow what
are the silver bars the air reel it shoots air down on the sickle and it keeps the sickle clean
okay and you'll also get to see harvesting these lentils so that'll be exciting yeah see how the
air bar is blowing blowing things in you have to replace a lot of sickle sections because of how
close you cut to the ground yes yeah we'll push a lot of rocks we'll see if your uncle rolled these
good i think uncle chris was the one to roll these wasn't he yes he was that's very interesting it
doesn't just flow in like the weed it has to have the air yes yeah those lentils are so short and
so light it doesn't feed very good without the air now with the pea augers they're not necessary with
the lentils but they're necessary with the peas because they're they're kind of a wiry type plant
and they'll stick together and they'll start climbing they'll try to climb right out the
back of your headers so the bee augers help to feed those in oh wow you must see a lot
of different wildlife from all the states you go to we do we do you know we've seen
moose and elk in the fields up here and countless antelope and uh we do have a lot of antelope yeah
a lot of mule deer and whitetail turkeys some of the wet years down south you'll have rattlesnakes
out in the field because they're moving up out of the stream beds creek beds and they uh
they like to hang in the edges of the wheat fields so that's no good our average went down
to 9.8 so lentils are good and dry lots of lots of different pages you can you can scroll through
uh you know so far on the on the lentils you know we've been a 29 bushel average
7.9 moisture and here's all the rotor rotor speeds and concaves and fan speeds it's actually idling
down now that's not that's not the uh rate that we cut out yes in the sieves which you have to change
for every crop yes yeah we have to change change for every crop well thank you so much i really
appreciate it yeah thank you yeah we'll uh be here for a couple days you guys have a lot of lentils
yes we do this year yeah what have been the most common crops you've seen this year a lot of winter
wheat this year yes yeah that's been a pretty big push so far in this state um you know and really
western kansas was pretty good and um you know it was it was above average we didn't we didn't see
a lot of the low end yields like we usually do a lot of times we see yields in the 20s and 30s
you know different dry land places and this year those yields are up in the upper 30s and you know
mid 40s so it turned out all right that's good then what states have you harvested in already and
our state was declared in an emergency drought so have you seen that affect these other states as
well it has in places but you know in western kansas this year it's usually pretty darn dry
and we got rained on you know eight or nine times through the course of that harvest so you know it
wasn't wasn't dry once we started cutting wheat i guess they ought to have some fall crops that's
great yeah that's uh nice not to be burnt up all the time but it's plenty dry around here
yes it is definitely we had a massive field fire actually that's not a good deal there's been
a lot of fires oh my gosh it's been terrible yes it has we blow the machines off every day
it's not a guarantee that you won't catch on fire but it seems to help that's we just kind of
do what we can and hopefully the sickles don't spark on a rock and yes and you know sometimes
those fires will take off before you ever know something's on fire it's really important to do
your daily maintenance and try and avoid that's a possible chance of a fire that's right and it's
nice having a neighbor with a disc hooked on once in a while too yes yes it is thank you so much for
watching i really hope you enjoyed and learned a little bit more about custom combine harvesting
and how your food gets to your table make sure to like and subscribe to see more awesome videos bye