It’s Wheat Harvest Season. This may be my favorite time of the year –or one of many.

Checking the wheat for harvest.

It has been a difficult wait for the grain to mature. This summer brought lots of rain, and the grain slowly matured.

Finally, in mid-August, the time is ripe with excitement in the fields.

A wheat sample is harvested.

The air is filled with anticipation as farmers glean a strip of wheat and haul it to the grain elevator, checking for the correct value. The proper moisture, the right protein count. The perfect hour to cut the grain from the stalk is timed for maximum gain.

Custom Cutters arrive from Canada.
Wheat combines are lined up and ready to harvest.

Massive equipment stands sentry at the edge of fields, ready for harvest. Operators scramble around the behemoths, ensuring all are in perfect condition.

These contract cutters, the men that power the massive machines through the fields, come from all over the world to drive the combines down the rows of grain.

This year, some drivers are from as far away as Ukraine. They come on a work visa to learn English,  to see and drive on North America’s breadbasket.

These super high-speed cutting machines make quick work of a field, often harvesting an entire section within an hour. That same section would take the average farmer an entire day to harvest. The race to harvest is against not only time but mother nature.

Severe Thunderstorm over Northern Dawes

It only takes a summer thunderstorm with severe wind or a downpour of rain, but worse yet… hail. Every day without incident is another day farmers can breathe a sigh of relief. Relief that a year’s worth of work has not been destroyed in an instant.