Harvest USA Report

HUSA Jan 12 2026 - Josh Wright

HUSA Jan 9 2026 David Misener

[Brian Hale]Here's more on the fire danger during cotton harvest season from David Misener. 
[David Woodruff]I can't remember the word that I'm trying to say, but the cotton seeds are they're an oil feed, are they not? 
[David Misener]Yes, they are. They're an oil seed in the cotton when it's put into a bale. It's got give off a fume kind of like gas is the easiest way that I could say it. The spark will go a long ways and create a lot of problem really fast and and all the dust and the leaves and the stocks and just your machine is so dirty. You got to be really careful with it when you're harvesting and clean your machine every day to help minimize that fire when it does happen. 
[David Woodruff]So then it looks like there's three things that you have to worry about. The cotton lint, that's got to be super flammable and then that oiliness of the seeds, I know I had a neighbor that raised hemp and he had to stop every round and go and blow off the manifold on the combine because that oily dust would catch on the manifolds and it could be smoldering away and it wouldn't be too long until it burned that John Deere right down. So he had to be out there. Some of the big square balers I understand they have a compressed air system blows off the knaughters every so often. Has anybody done that for cotton strippers?
[David Misener]Not that I know of, but I can say myself, I do have one of them big air compressors that you pull around you know that it's a whole by itself machine and got a diesel engine in it. Yeah it just when the fire happens there's just a lot of trash out there that can fuel for that fire. It's just laying all over the machine hanging on everywhere. 
[Brian Hale]That's going to do it for today's Harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.

HUSA Jan 8 2026 - Jesper Hansen

[David Woodruff] We're talking to Jasper Hansen from Scobey, Montana. So are you harvesting at this point or are you done?
[Jesper Hansen] We are still harvesting. We actually just started cutting sunflowers here south of Scobey We had sunflowers on our own farm. They look pretty decent for the year the late rains. We had that didn't help our wheat and lentils definitely helped our sunflowers. They're running about 1,500 pounds, which we feel like that's pretty good for this area.
[David Woodruff] Do sunflowers normally yield any better than anything else?
[Jesper Hansen] When you get into areas, you know, North Dakota, South Dakota, you can you can get a lot better than that But we're pretty fortunate that we got that kind of yield and and they dry there's seven and a half percent moisture So we're just going 
[David Woodruff]  So how high of moisture can they go up to before you have to dry them or something?
[Jesper Hansen] Well, we don't have the ability of drying them here But Fargo will take them up to 13 and a half if you ship them directly But we kind of like to get them down there six to eight percent for storing them I would imagine that drying sunflowers would be kind of a hard thing an oil seed or is it a problem?
[David Woodruff] I would think that's kind of hard. I've never experienced it but yeah being an oil seed that could easily start on fire would think and 1500, do you ever see a yield better than that?
[Jesper Hansen] Once we get into the Dakotas and cut them around there. Yes, we definitely do, but around here that is by far the best .
[David Woodruff] So is it a moisture thing?
[Jesper Hansen] Yes, it definitely is, like I said this year we lucked out with the the late rains.
[Brian Hale] That's gonna do it for today's harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale

Fire Dangers During Cotton Harvest

HUSA Jan 6 2026 - David Misener on Cotton

Welcome to the Harvest USA Report. I'm Brian Hale, an original production ofHoward Hale Broadcasting now expanded throughout North America. Let's join aconversation with David Woodruff and David Meisner. 
I'm in the cotton stripper right now yet still harvesting. 
You're still harvesting. Whoa! I better say we're talking to David Meisner. Let's see Elk City, Oklahoma, is that right?
That is correct. The good news is it's getting down and the bad news is it's not done. That's right. It's not done but the end is very very close. I'm down to maybe one to two days left. It's all done. Done harvesting for the year then. So about how many acres is that? It'll take you two days. Somewhere between 100 to 200 is what I got left. Helping the farmer out to get done. He's got his own machine running so just kind of depends on how much he lets me help finish up and what he wants to try to get accomplished himself if you will. So the two machines working man? Yes it is. Getting done and we're doing cotton and it's a really good cotton harvest year around home this year. Had a lot of rain at the beginning of the year and put some moisture in the subsoil and didn't get it towards the end and we're actually really really dry and dust is blowing on and we've actually had high fire danger today where bug normal temperatures were in the upper 70s and low humidity and it's got wind so it makes a good fire day if but we don't need any of that so we're just trying to be careful and watch what we're doing on harvesting and get this part done. 
Custom Harvester David Meissner working cotton in his hometown area there at Elk City, Oklahoma.That's gonna do it for today's HarvestUSA report. Thanks again for listening andmay God bless. I'm Brian Hale.

HUSA Jan 5 2026 - Ryan Urban

HARVEST USA REPORT for January 5, 2026
 
[Brian Hale]Welcome to the Harvest USA Report. I'm Brian Hale... an original production of Howard Hale Broadcasting, now expanded throughout North America.
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[Brian Hale]There is proof that soil health can start from absolutely zero. Meet farmer Ryan Urban. He was tasked with the impossible. Converting a gravel pile from interstate construction into workable farmland. Ryan decided to follow the soil health roadmap and begin with what the land needed most. Living biology. Ryan worked to slowly rebuild organic matter and let life do what it does best. Today that same flat is growing something again. Not perfect, not finished, but moving in the right direction. Now here's Ryan Urban with a message from growing resilience, South Dakota. 
[Ryan Urban] (via Growing Resilience SD)At one point that was a hot mix plant and a gravel pile for when they built the interstate and it used to look like a gravel parking lot. So we've been feeding on it. We're slowly getting organic matter back and now this whole flat here starting to grow something. It might not be exactly what we want yet but we're making strides. 
[Brian Hale]That's the real lesson here. Soil health isn't about instant results. It's about steady progress, long-term thinking and giving the land a chance to respond. Visit our Harvest USA Facebook page and look for that link from Everything Cover Crops and you'll see how Ryan rebuilt soil from the ground up.
That's going to do it for today's Harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.
 
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HUSA Jan 2 2026 - US Grains Council

HUSA Jan 1 2026 - Happy New Year