hello welcome to Kate's Ag i just drove the pickup truck to the shop and i will be heading
out to the field soon today is our first official day of harvest which is so exciting
um there's a uh uh you don't have that work oh you do i got to do one here
is it in that bag Kate is that round thing yeah yes okay that thing was higher here but
is it in there more well they are in high enough they push Darcy has to push in too
now i'm taking Darcy to the schoolhouse and we're gonna go out to the field i just dropped
Darcy off of to his truck and i see the cutest bunny right there oh so adorable there my
dad is in the combine pulling onto the road the window's really dirty so it's tough to
see some antelope in the field
i just made it out to the field and put my stuff in the combine dad's going to go to
his combine and pick up the last bit of my row because my dad's combine filled up and
i had to move to his row so therefore i left my row do you want me to start my combine
okay so this is an overview of two of the combines this one with duals is my dad they're
both 9870 STSs i'm not really sure what the STS part means but that's what they are this
is called a header and you can detach them and put on different types so you can cut
different crops or different ways and then there my dad goes i'm now going to get in
the combine and start it up they need time to warm up because they're such big machines
you may have noticed that i am wearing a shirt with my Kate's Ag logo on it yes i'm officially
launching shirts which is so exciting but they're not an ordinary or typical shirt which
was so important to me the cotton of these shirts is grown and sewn in the U.S.A it is
so crucial to know who you're supporting so you can actually track where this shirt was
grown and produced so you know the farmer and all of the people involved in making this
shirt it looks like Darcy took a ride in the combine with dad so maybe Darcy is going to
run the combine let's go see what's going on so Darcy is running combine today which
is really exciting i also have my Kate's Ag tote bag here in the cab and another Kate's
Ag tote bag i usually always have about two with me at any given time i am now going to
rev my combine up put the steering wheel down raise the header and go and dump in Steve
Walls truck if you have watched my videos for a while you'd probably recognize Steve
Wahl from actually a couple of my trucking videos and his wife Lily owns Lily Bean's
coffee shop in Dutton, Montana and we absolutely love it she's actually making our lunches
and dinners for harvest time so we're so fortunate to have her on our harvest team dad is dumping
in the truck right now these shirts are also very very comfortable and the cotton is beautiful
so i'm going to pull up a little bit closer behind my dad
so i can put my auger out eventually it is tough lining up with trucks and it's a lot
harder than with the grain cart so for the first dump of the year in the truck is a little
more challenging my dad's just finishing up so i'll pull up in a second does my auger
clear the top of the truck? Darcy do you have a copy i don't know if this is gonna clear
or not but we'll go with the fact that maybe it will clear
like there
here okay
so Steve Wahlall just gave me the a-ok to start dumping in this part of the truck started
to fill up in that area so i'm hoping i don't have to move any further than right here so
i just moved up a little bit more to the second column and i'm hoping this works out i can't
hear you are you can you have a copy can you hear me
gosh that was an experience i can't
my dad's trying to radio me his combine isn't set up with these radios so he has a different
type i can't hear you at all
at all do you can you hear me that always sucks when you can't communicate on the radio
oh i think lunch is here maybe that's what my dad was trying to say so i'll just follow
him we haven't even started and we're already taking lunch so i'm going to pull up to this
side of my dad because i want a close to be close proximity to lunch as well now i'm gonna
just cool down my combine it hasn't been running for very long so it doesn't need to cool down
for that long of a time it's mostly been in idle dad do you have a copy?
hi Steve good thank you how are you i'm now here with Steve Wahl at lunch which is very
exciting and you may have seen him in some trucking videos because you took me for a
ride in your truck and then also your wife Lily has the most incredible coffee shop yeah
she does it's a good coffee shop yes well thank you for helping us with yes and hot
chocolate my dad said and sandwiches and pies a little bit of everything the most delicious
sandwiches the avocado one with turkey is incredible yeah she's a good cook so yeah
good coffee maker so that's very exciting and she's helping us with lunch as well and
dinner so that's super awesome that's great she appreciates it thank you for helping us
with harvest Steve you're welcome i'm picking up my combine header now so while i was at
lunch i was telling my dad that my radio wasn't working or don't forget to idle it down when
you put it in Kate i won't thank you so at lunch i was telling my dad about how his radio
isn't working and Darcy said well i heard him just fine and everyone else heard my dad
just fine so then Steve Wahl said well kate is your radio "on" and i thought oh my goodness
my radio's not "on" i couldn't believe it never in a million years did i think it was
my radio that wasn't working so now dad's in the 9870 STS with duals i'm in the 9870
STS with just one wheel on each side well they have two wheels but just one big front
wheel and then um Darcy is in the i believe it's 9670. so i'm going to idle it down put
the back in put the front in idle it up i'm in second gear so i'm good good place my combine
header down and i am going i'll slow down a little bit i'll probably go 3.4, 3.5 this
is a really awful crop but we want to make sure we maximize the amount of wheat we get
from this swath normally i would just speed through a swath like this but this is all
of our wheat so you have to go slower hardly coming in at all which is sad oh my goodness
a bird ah that's adorable my Kate's Ag tote bag here is so dirty but i just think it looks
better the dirtier it is because it's a very useful tote bag i'm very excited for harvest
and i hope you're excited to watch my family's harvest as well so 2022 harvest has officially
begun on the Stephens Montana farm got a little bit of a late start today didn't officially
start cutting until after lunch it's not really cutting we're just picking up wheat right
now so i guess didn't officially start harvesting but as long as you get started we're good
to go i know a lot of our neighbors aren't even in the field yet we didn't actually think
that our wheat would be ready but it is so we're happy about that i'm going to look in
my grain tank to make sure the wheat is fairly clean and it does look clean it's measuring
about eight bushels an acre for me which is almost non-existent because a typical crop
for us would be around average so not even that great would be 60 bushel 65 bushels a
really good crop would be around 70 75 a really bumper crop would be probably 80 to 90 to
even maybe 100 bushels per acre so nine is not even covering our cost what we put into
the crop not including labor and all of the other costs you have to endure to be able
to harvest the crop this is my fourth harvest driving combine my first harvest i was 15
years old and my grandfather asked me if i would be willing to run combine and i fell
in love with it and i haven't stopped since in my second harvest i started making youtube
videos and filming my experience because i had such a wonderful time on combine i wanted
to explain to everyone i met about what i was doing and i realized even in Montana such
a large agricultural State not many people knew how their food got to their table or
much about the process it takes to get it there so i wanted to make a difference and
i thought making videos and and showing what i do and love would be the best way to do
that it's a little bit better here it's 9-10 bushels per acre which is a sad thought but
it'll be okay we'll get through this year and we'll hopefully get some rain my dad's
stopping and raising his header and backing up to see how well his combine is picking
up the wheat and it looks like it's picking it up pretty good so i'll drop my header back
on the ground Darcy actually used to run combine but it's been a very long time he's usually
our truck driver i never thought i'd see a harvest where Darcy ran combine so i'm just
going to slow down a little bit so my dad has time to make his corner and start his
next pass we have 160 acres here and then 160 acres here as well so this is a 320 but
my uncle swathed it in two sections so that we only need one pass to fill up and we can
dump in the truck you're gonna go about halfway down this path to about the second green spot
and then you gotta go north because he cut this field in two pieces he made three rounds
around the outside so i'm gonna take the outside round did you hear me Kate?
yes i heard you i'm just processing i'll tell you when your row ends it ends at this second
green spot in front of you is where it ends and you can hardly see it
it's weird to think that this is my fourth harvest already it feels like i'm still new
to this but yet i know how to operate the combine and it comes natural so this is really
weird actually oh my goodness two antelope in the field oh they just ran away my dad's
combine's getting close to them though where your row end's Kate is the one in front
of you when you take up because the long one is the down one
the one directly in front of me well when your row ends
the one directly in front of you is yours or to the right not the long one with the
long tail that's when it comes down the other side what direction do i need to be heading
taking this row well i can't see you but when your row hands that thing right there is the
one you want to be on following behind you correct? Not behind me
don't follow me go to the right you have to go to the other end of the field
so i will be heading south correct okay this makes sense thank you i wasn't understanding
where to go now i understand yeah that other row in front of me was the wrong way so Darcy
is west of me and my dad's east of me and i'm headed this way i just finished my row
headed south so now i'm going to dump in Steve's truck head to the west side of the field take
a row headed north and hopefully be able to line up to this truck and it looks like i'm
getting pretty close to empty so hopefully i won't have to move i wonder if i'm loading
from the wrong side are you only supposed to load the truck from one side did i mess
this up well try and get it centered you know what i mean no it's centered but i'm on the
right side and last time i was on the left side so now i'm heading back over to my wheat
pass it looks like i have one up here a half row so i'm going to drive up to it my dad
had one more row all the way around the field because we only had two combines in the field
last time and our swather does three all the way around and then the rest in sections so
because we didn't have that third combine my dad had to take it today so i idled the
machine down put the back in first then put the header in then i rev it up put my header
down it's usually a continuous motion as you go forward you put your header down um you
put your header down first so if you're just new to everything because it all seems like
it's coming at you fast although once you've had a little bit experience you realize it
is simple so now i'm just continuing picking up the swathed wheat and working on getting
this field done thank you so much for watching today's video i really hope you enjoyed and
learned a little bit more about how your food gets to your table and the process it takes
to get it there make sure to like and subscribe you can visit Kate's Ag instagram k-a-t-e-s
underscore a g and on facebook tik tok and pinterest as well as the Kate's Ag website
k-a-t-e-s-a-g-dot-com and purchase a Kate's Ag grown and sewn in the U.S.A shirt and a
Kate's Ag tote bag also made in the U.S.A thank you so much for watching bye