[Previous entry: "NATIONAL DROVERS HALL OF FAME"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF MSIE"]

06/27/2003 Archived Entry: "ONCE IN A LIFETIME CROP"

ONCE IN A LIFETIME CROP

What we are experiencing around here is a "once in a lifetime wheat crop", according to John Thaemert, president of the National Wheat Growers Association and finance man at the Citizens State Bank and Trust. It is phenomenal, according to the farmers I’ve talked with.

Now…if we could only combine (pun intended) a great wheat crop with high prices. I should think with such an abundant crop this year the prices will go down as they usually do. They are already low.

I’ve been told, by those who know, that it is better to have low prices and an abundant crop than high prices and a meager crop. The math works out better for farmers. Wheat harvests the last few years have been nothing for farmers to brag about, but they will talk about this one for a long time.

Many moons ago, we’d pile the kids in the car in the evening and head to the elevator to watch our farmer friends unload their trucks. The kids liked watching the front end of the truck being raised so that the wheat would flow out the back. Kids were more easily entertained in those days. What a change today with many of the trucks being those huge, huge, huge busters rather than the familiar little (by comparison) red-bedded wheat trucks…most having no brakes. These days the streets and highways are jammed with wheat trucks heading for the elevator and it’s one pretty sight.

Harvest time always brings back memories of the year I hauled wheat for our good friends, Jessie and Cleo Rathbun. I rode on the combine with Ronnie late the night of June 23rd as he made the last rounds in the field that ended their harvest that year. It was a clear night and perfect harvest weather. It was a good feeling knowing the crop was in for another year. The dinners that Betty would bring to the fields were something to remember, especially her brownies. They were the best. Those were the good days spent with good friends.

I remember one year there was a good crop with such yields that the elevator ran out of storage space. They piled this huge mountain of wheat in the street in front of the old high school where it remained until school started. What a play ground that was for the kids that summer.