hello welcome to Kate's Ag today we are already combining in the
field and I just stopped in my swath because I see feathers which is so cool
and if you watch my videos from last Harvest I always stop to get the feathers
oh my goodness they're hawk feathers and all the baby fluff too so there's my combine
and this is my swath how cool here they are now I'm harvesting again I am back in my combine
today because the other combine is back from being fixed and my dad's in his now I'm driving to Steve
Wahl's truck to dump in it hopefully I'll be the last load it looks like I will and I might even
have to put some of my tank in another truck I don't know if I'm lined up properly or if I'm too
far over oh that's dead center I don't know if this will fill them or not hopefully it does he
looks pretty full to me and just gave me a thumbs up so I think he's full was Steve out there Kate
yes and he's full yeah I'm going to do two laps this time me too
I didn't even need to go over there but I needed to still Steve correct so I'm here starting
another round I press number two button to set my header on the ground and number one button we'll
take it up pick it up at the end of the row so I don't have to use the up and down header buttons
and do it manually which is super nice and then it kind of Auto floats to the ground which is
pretty cool you can set these buttons at whatever height you'd like so number one button if I would
like it to be could be the one where you set your header on the ground but instead I have
that where you pick it up so these three buttons here are very useful and almost like keyboard
shortcuts but for your combine hydrostat I'm going about 3.7 miles per hour which
may be too fast but I occasionally stop and back up check how well my combine's picking up and it
seems to be picking up as well as it can and my return auger right here with return auger
is how much wheat hasn't been processed the first time and is sent back for another round and what
I mean by processed is the combine kind of works like this inside to remove the covering from the
head of the wheat and the grain kernels so that the grain kernels cannot end up in the back here
and all the rest which is called chaff can go out the back of the combine and back into the field
the return auger has just saw the grain kernels that didn't get put into the grain tank and need
one extra round to get all of the stuff off of them I have my Kate's Ag tote bag right here so
now I hit button number two it lowers my header to the ground and I start off into the wheat
I'm going 3.6 miles per hour usually you want to start your wheat swath at a lower speed because
the combine needs to kind of adjust to having the wheat being fed in it now I'm going to take two
laps around the field before I dump just because we're getting kind of to the end of this portion
of the field not completely done but fairly close to it and we're just not filling up as fast the
wheat is a lot better in this field I'm getting 12 bushels per acre which is still awful but in
that field I was getting zero to six bushels per acre and in the field we were in before the one
to the east of me we were getting probably less than six bushels per acre so I'm happy to see
that it's up it's 14 and 15 now so I would say I mean it's possible that we're averaging 20
in this field probably less than that closer to maybe 15 lunches here or it may be in the first
truck I don't know where he's at he could be in the first truck to the west over here is fine I'm
sitting here because I have a fan in here to run I was just waiting till the truck was loaded ok
I'm looking forward to lunch Lily always has the most delicious sandwiches I'm really enjoying
Harvest I'm definitely very tired but that's just how Harvest is you just gotta keep going
get the crops out because we can't we can't work normal hours at Harvest because you never
know what's going to happen with the weather and you spend your whole year growing this crop and
putting money into the crop it's crucial you get it out of the field as fast as you can
it's like your whole Year's earning sitting in a field that you need to put in the bank
and basically that's basically that's what Harvest is like for Farmers because
rain could still come hail could come snow could come and we wouldn't be able to get this wheat
lots of variations in weather could happen where it can ruin our crop or we wouldn't be able to
get it outside of out of the field so well it's still possible to get the crop out of the field
you want to get as much of it as you can so now I'm making my little turn again I'll press button
number one and it just slightly lifts my headers I missed a row here you gotta go outside of me Arvid
oh you're okay I can pick it up next time we come around I just got inside of the outside row
sometimes that happens because you can't tell where the row starts especially when
you're dropping straw out the back and you're not chopping it up you're basically creating a whole
nother swath that you're going to bale so you really have to look for what does the fluffy had
on it because that would be the wheat swath I'm going through a little bit of a draw in the field
right now so I'm having to maneuver my header up and down a little bit because as the combine
climbs a little bit and also goes down your header moves as well it's a little bit of a windy day in
Montana which is pretty typical and it's extremely warm I think it's 100 degrees today and it will
also be 100 degrees tomorrow as well so I'm very thankful to have the luxury of air conditioning
in my combine I know when my dad and Grandpa were farming they didn't have that so it's pretty nice
although we did see a farmer the other day who still has one of the open cab combines and is
harvesting with it which I think is really neat my dad said you'll never understand how grateful to
to be for the cabs until you've driven a cab list combine for one day and I said only one day and he
said yes one day you should do it so I imagine you get pretty dusty and especially cutting barley you
would get really itchy now I'm making my turn again to start a pass padded let's see South
put my header down start my row oh there's a hawk in the field I've actually seen a lot of
hawks lately which is interesting some years you see them you see a lot of them and others
you don't I haven't seen many pheasants though but I love pheasants I love any animals in the field
and as for other Wildlife there hasn't been much I haven't seen any deer or I did see one coyote
while I was swathing with Uncle Chris but that's about it oh the hawk just flew away I'm going
3.7 miles per hour and my return auger is almost full when the return auger gets full the combine
plugs off so you really have to watch that but what's so interesting to me is I could go any
speed in the other fields and it wouldn't even get halfway full so that really tells you this
is better wheat how big your swath is doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a good crop
I remember one year we had really massive swaths and there was just no wheat in them the wheat can
have a really big stem and make a big swath the kernels and the head of the wheat are really what
you're looking for so now I'm starting a another lap even though lunch is here I did get to the
field a little bit late so I want to make sure to make up It's lunch time you need to either dump
in that front truck so you can leave your combine empty when you leave do you want me
to just finish this row yeah I don't care so I'm just going to finish a sweet swath and then head
to lunch now I'm going to dump in the truck here it looks like there's already some grain in it
I can't tell for sure though try not to spill any grain when you're dumping
because that's grain that you've worked very hard to grow and especially with
how high costs are in farming now you want every kernel you can get I think Darcy could use some
more in the front of this truck so I'm going to idle it down and turn it on just to top him off
and I'm dead center down the middle again I must be getting a little bit better at this definitely
not good at filling yet but maybe by the end of harvest I will be now I'm moving to the back again
now I'm going to drive over by my dad and park for lunch You sure you got time to eat Kate?
okay my dad and Uncle Chris just asked me if I could drive the tandem out to the field this
will be my first time solo driving the truck without my dad or Uncle Chris which is so
crazy I am very excited right now a little bit nervous because it's been quite a while since
I've driven a truck at least like four months my uncle and dad said that there was a little
knob switch thing to turn on by where you put fuel in the truck
I've seen this I just can't remember where the switch thing is
I'm just gonna get in and see how it goes so I have it running but there's
this screeching noise I'm not sure what that is
okay okay that's an air buzzer and you can't go anywhere till
that quits ok you can push the yellow knob in and drive it over here then
seat belts on Or can you Kate?
okay thank you so Uncle Chris said you push the yellow knob in but first it's
clutch push the yellow knob in put it in Drive where's Drive oh right here do I have the D for
drive somewhere okay it says second gear so I assume it's in Drive let the clutch out easily
I'm driving a semi truck by myself for the first time ever
this is the coolest thing ever I'm officially a truck driver during Harvest