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my harvesting story

4K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  gibbons025 
#1 ·
it all strated on july 8, 2005 i left winston-salem nc to go to st joesph missouri. one of the guys who work for the crew was going to meet me there and pick me up from the bus station my boss leroy schmitz lived in seneca kansas which was about 50-60 miles, once i got to my bosses house we were loading up getting ready to head into the nebraska panhandle. which would be in sidney and the potter areas. so for the next day and a half we fixed a disc because the spacers needed to be replaced. me and my boss and a guy named justin went to a near by field to load up another combine which is the one i would be driving which is the 9650 walker. we loaded up and sent justin to meet us in sidney nebraska so finally we packed up loaded up the header trailer and got gone, i lived in kansas all my life i didnt realize how beautiful the state was we stopped in marysville to eat at a taco bell. my boss said we was going to take highway 36 until we hit colorado, but we had a change on plans we stayed on highway 36 until we took highway 81 north my co worker andy asked if i would drive for while and i said sure. i drove until we hit 1-80 west so it was about a 10 hour drive we were in sidney around 12 that night so everybody was there waiting on us. so we got checked in the generic motel and got some much needed sleep. the next morning we got breakfast at mcdonalds and went to the truck stop behind the walmart supercenter, we unloaded the combines the 9650sts and the 9650 walker, paul the truck driver and justin had to make a run back to okalhoma to get a 9550 machine. today was the day i was excited to finally get to cut wheat the field were we cutting wasnt even a mile from our hotel i mean heck its walking distance about a 15 minute walk. so we got the combines to the field we had to run back to the truck stop and get the draper header for the sts, i saw alot of custom cutters mostly heading north to bridgeport and going west toward potter. so we finaly got started cutting wheat i rode with andy who operates the sts just to get a feel for the machine, when it was my turn to drive i picked up on how to operate the machine with in a half hour the field we cut had alot of small hills he showed me how to use the contour master once we got runnning we ran. the wheat we cut was good. i will write the rest of the story sometime. tune in for part 2.
 
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#2 ·
my harvesting story part 2

after driving the 9650 sts for a while i switched combines with andy to drive the 9650 walker. it is a good machine, but i notice someting wrong the hydro lever was to tight so i has a little trouble stopping the machine but i was able to get use to it, we cut until 11:00 that night it was 170 acre field that we were cutting this field had alot of ditches and small hills the 9650 walker didnt have contour master but that still didnt stop me for cutting. so we called it a night and went back to the hotel and got sleep. next morning we got up around 9:00 ate breakfast and headed to the field to service the machine grease and fuel the up before we got going, a guy named derek was riding with me for a while we had about 50 acres left before we headed to the next field i cutting where the ditches were and they were pretty steep we had duals on both machines. i went over a ditch to fast and boom the header came off so i shut the machine off quickly call leroy and told him what happened so we had some boards to put under the header and drive to it and we were back rolling again. we finished up went to the next field no problems we went to another field the header came off again i went over a small hill and it came off we figured out what the problem was, come to find out that the latch pins on the right side wont go in all the way cause a the header needed to be torched out so the pin can fit all the way in. once we finshed up. we moved to potter the wheat there was averaging around 60-70 bushels per acre finally we had all 3 combines in the field the 9550 came that morning, little did i know trouble was coming again. on my last path of wheat before we all was going to move to another field i went down a steep hill turn around to go back to the hill to get a patch of wheat the i heard a loud boom sound at first the header again then i thought no cause the header is still on i shut the machine off got out and look the right side of my axle broke and half i was mad. so i was shut down for the day. the other combines moved to another field and start cutting. andy was cutting until midnight. leroy wanted him to pack up and head to south dakota. andy drove 25 miles back to sidney where he was going to load the sts and head north grab the draper head and he was off. that morning leroy had to go 40 miles to bridgeport and get the part for my machine it took us an hour to get it fixed and we got rolling i went to another field and cut by myself come to find out i was cutting for a guy who had own a a 9600 cause he need some help this was the best whet field i cut to date. i made 4 rounds and i was full i can hear wheat spilling on top of my cab i got plugged up my reverser stop working come to find out the chain was worn out so we put a new chain on and i was back again this was a 80 acre section i knocked half of that in a 2 hours time so i stopped for a while i couldnt get a hold of leroy on the cb for quite some time. so when i finally did i asked him do you want me to keep going he told me yes until you get your grain hopper full then shut down it was around 10:30 at night so i went to go break open the new section of the field, once i got full i was finished. the next day finished up the field and went to another. we cut a 40 acre section and we were done so its time to take the combines to the truck stop and get washed. the guy derek was so drunk one day that he almost hit us with the combine. so once we get to the truck stop we left the combines there overnight so we can was the tommorrow. the next day we washed and washed until they got clean my boss was mad at me about something but i couldnt understand why comes to find out he tells me it isnt going to work out. which made me mad because you have one guy derek who was drunk most of the time and you have another justin who doesnt so nuts but sit on his a** and smoke weed all day long. so leroy went to south dakota to meet up with andy so i had to wait another day until i got my 2 weeks pay. so the next morning me justing derek drove to sidney to get the combine so we can load it and haul it leroy wanted me to wait at the truck stop so he can send me my money after 2 hours of waiting i got my money. come to find out while me and leroy were talking on the phone the reason why let me go because he told a lie saying i was getting in his face, which a a lie cause i told leroy if you had a problem with me come tell what i am doing wrong but the thing is he never had a problem with me we was tellng me that i was the best combine operator he ever had, to me he was making an excuse to get rid of me no problem got my money and my bags went to arbys ate waited until 8pm to catch the next bus out of sidney. i'm glad i learned alot in a short peroid of time i'm not worried about that crew anymore. cause what goes around comes around. if you have any comments please email me at tysonhildebrandt@yahoo.com
by the way i just came back from carlinville illionis harvesting corn and would like to say i had fun. you can check me out on this website
www.killamfarms.com i'm driving a jd 8420 with a 880 brent cart also i did run the sts for a while take care guys thanks.
 
#5 ·
Alex and Tyson,

I know what it is like having a boss that will make excuses. I was with one over the summer that was constantly telling me that I was never good enough and acussing me of lying to him with no justification. The biggest thing I can tell you after having been on harvest for three summers is research who you are going with, and try to stay away from single machine crews.
 
#11 ·
I have been with two different crews now. For the first two summers I was with Schwanke harvesting from Scott City, KS. That was a good crew to work for if you like hard work and long hours. Then in 05 I went with Ginther farms. As for single combine crews my experience has been that if you are the only crew member then you usually do two peoples work if there is a grain cart. I liked harvesting and working but when it comes to only having one machine there is a lot of down time for one person. I personally would rather work with crews of 3 or more combines. (just a personal opinion i guess) there is also more opportunity for friendship to build on the larger crews. With the single crew I stayed in the camper with the family, which was somewhat of an weird situation to be in. Any questions you can email me justin.hergert@okstate.edu
 
#12 ·
For the last two years ive worked for JD harvesting out of west, texas. We have 3 9760's and a 9660STS. I have had nothing but a great time. My boss is great and i am treated with respect. Custom harvesting has allowed me to meet so many new people and see so much country that i never could have met any other way. there are plenty of crews out there and u just have to find the one that is suited to u. m$.02
 
#13 ·
Justin and Deeredude, i can sure relate to what you both are sayin, I had a good-paying farm job this summer. It was not harvesting, or anything at all to do with any machinery, but I was the oldest hired hand there. I was also the only one who did not drink or use drugs. Not everyone did the dope thing, but I've been around different work situations, and know for a fact, that unless you do whatever the vice of choice is, the rest of them get very uneasy. I also think there's always the inherent fear of theirs of someone turning them in--for their illegal activities.

I was a little surprised that your boss [Deeredude] let you go without even having a talk with you to get to the bottom of things, but I also believe he's more favored to those who get drunk or high. maybe he's getting a kickback of sorts. Who knows. I can testify I sure saw the writing on the wall at my job, but was never sexually harassed. I just knew that the one who would NOT end up in bed with the foreman, would likely be replaced. The scantily-clad girls [who also drank or smoked pot] were the ones getting the easier tasks and pay raises. Go figure.

So what? I'm better than that--and so are YOU!
 
#14 ·
I to have been in your shoes when I first went on Harvest back when I was still in High School. If there was people I did not like then I did not hang around them, and you know I let them know that, yeah bening on a harvest crew you are close to them every day but still if some people dont get along then they just wont get along, I just took in in stride and did my best that i could. It sucks the way you where treated, i wonder how he is still makeing it. There are good crews out there but it seems today they are getting hard to find. If you need anyhelp PM me and I will be glad to help out, I know alot of people in harvesting.
 
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