A Time to Reap: Combines hard at work around Mission Valley
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Fields of wheat the color of a bronc rider’s buckrein stretch towards the Mission Mountains. It’s nearing the end of September, and the grain in Gene Erb’s fields is ready to be cut. On Sept. 7, Brian Bohn arrived with two combines to cut the wheat.
It’s good harvest weather, Bohn said, hot and dry, and it’s been good since Aug. 20.
Bohn, 28, has two combines with 30-foot heads. As he and Ty Evenrud pull into the blond fields, a large rotating wheel on the front of each combine called the reel pushes the grain towards the cutter bar oscillating along near ground level that cuts the grain. Then the grain stalks move towards the center where spinning augers pull the grain up into the threshing drum that beats the plants to shake the grains loose. They fall through a sieve into the holding tank, and the chaff, unwanted plant matter, goes out the back of the machine.
It takes longer to describe the process than it does for the big green machines to cut since they mow down about 10 acres per hour.
It takes nine tons of grain to fill the holding tank, Bohn noted. Then a truck pulls up beside the combine so the grain can be offloaded through a side pipe.
“You have to have a good driver to offload while the combine is moving,” Bohn said, keeping his eyes constantly on the rear view mirror and where the head is cutting.
When the truck is full, it trundles off to Erb’s granary, where the wheat is unloaded and augured into the building for storage.
Bohn and his crew already have cut 1,500 acres and will probably reach 3,000 acres including Bohn’s own 700 acres.
He’s been combining 10 years or so. Right out of college he was offered a job with one of the custom combining outfits that starts in Texas and follows the ripening grain north to Canada, but he came home to Ronan and started farming and combining here. Bohn started out with an old combine and has worked his way up until he has two newer combines.
Technology has made the whole process easier. Now combines have cabs, are air conditioned and come fully equipped with radios and CD players.
Cell phones and radios allow combines and ranchers to text or call truck drivers when they’re needed or to even talk to friends and family when the days get long. Bohn said he starts cutting grain about 9 or 10 a.m. and goes until 10 p.m.
On this job there are additional perks. Erb cooks using Dutch ovens, and he’s preparing a special dinner including beans “all the boys love.”
Then Bohn and crew will head on to the next field of grain.
