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Custom harvester stymied by wet fields, weeds

Wet fields have slowed the wheat harvest in parts of Colorado. Custom harvester Jenna Zeorian and her family finished cutting at their last stop, Deerfield, Kansas, at the beginning of July. The complication was the timing of the harvest at their next stop in Colorado.

“Here in Limon, [Colorado,] it wasn’t ready for a couple of weeks still, but there was zero wheat left standing between the two locations, so we had a couple of weeks of down time, which in this business is not a good thing,” Zeorian said, from Colorado, in an interview with Brownfield. “Your combine needs to be in the field.”

Following their move to Limon, Colorado, Zoerian says they were slowed by frequent rain, but at least it seems that the crop is better than in some locations where drought has cut yields.

“The wheat that we have been able to cut has been doing very well,” said Zeorian. “It’s been ranging anywhere between 20 and 40 bushels per acre.”

The one thing that hasn’t slowed, Zeorian says, is the growth of weeds in the fields they’re trying to cut. Herbicide treatments need to be left alone for awhile before combines can re-enter a field.

Zeorian’s blog is at www.allaboardharvest.com.

AUDIO: Jenna Zeorian (3 min. MP3)