Today was great fun- we watched the harvest process of a wheat field. We were able to ride in the combine as well as the bankout wagon, and saw it trucked to the silo to await being shipped via barge down river. It was a real educational experience and we got the feel of life on the farm. This one was family owned and operated for 5 generations and even the young ones are involved in driving the equipment. Today a 13 year old was driving one of the bankout wagons! The fields out here are huge as you can imagine and I was disoriented more than once out there-
Below is one of the bankout wagons- there were two of these today.
Two bankwagons filling the hauler. There were two haulers: one traveling to be unloaded 25-30miles away, and one in the field being filled.
View from inside the cab of a bankwagon- it's pretty comfy, has a.c., a radio...etc. (sadly, no bathroom!)
We are coming alongside of the combine which will fill our wagon with wheat-
Now I am in the combine- there were 3 combines in operation.
See how huge these fields are- Wayne who farms this, farms 4-6,000 acres all total!
It can get a bit dusty in the fields.
From the combine we are loading the bankwagon.
The finished fields are beautiful!
Trucks enter the weigh station and unload their grain.
It goes through the gate onto a conveyer belt.
In this case from the belt it was piled high outdoors.
Silos are here as well, but likely housing barley or other crops.
The soil here is very dry so they grow mostly winter wheat and spring wheat and occasionally canola to clean up the fields. They could grow barley but the demand is lower.
So altogether there were two haulers, two bankwagons and three combines operating in unison throughout the day to harvest just this one tract we were able to visit. It was done by a close knit group of family and friends and a great experience!
Tomorrow we head east towards Yellowstone NP which we will reach on Monday.
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