Harvest USA Report

The report discusses how unusual weather patterns in 2026 have made it difficult for custom harvesters to find work across North America. Despite the slowdown, Demaray Harvesting and Trucking in Arizona recently began fieldwork, including deep ripping to break up compacted soil caused by flood irrigation. Hale Harvesting briefly secured a swathing job in Oklahoma, but the work ended quickly, leaving them searching for more opportunities again. Meanwhile, Beckley Harvesting shared photos from a gathering in Kansas, highlighting some community activity despite the challenging season. Overall, the industry is facing limited demand and uncertainty.
 
Welcome to the Harvest USA Report, I'm Brian Hale. An original production of Howard Hale Broadcasting, now expanded throughout North America. As many of you have heard, it's getting really tough right now for the custom harvesters to find work with the crazy weather patterns that 2026 has delivered.
 
However, we are finding just a few crews out there getting busy. Demaray Harvesting and Trucking LLC is in Casa Grande, Arizona. They've got a couple machines into the field this last week in Arizona.
 
It feels good to blow the cobwebs off and get back into the swing of things, they wrote. Demaray does a fair amount of deep ripping in Arizona throughout the year using a Steiger 525 with a 7 shank Wilcox ripper. Ripping is very important in this part of the country because with all of the flood irrigation, the ground gets severely compacted over time and turns into a hard pan.
 
We generally have to rip anywhere from 24 to 28 or more inches deep in to get under the pan and break the ground up again. Hale Harvesting had some good news, but it didn't last long. They wrote, one day we got a phone call and packed up and hauled a swather down into central Oklahoma.
 
The phone has just not been ringing, which has made it even more of a delightful surprise to get this swathing call for someone who was a custom grain harvester himself for more than 40 years. The only downside is that we're already finished and back to hunting for more work again, so if you're considering calling to talk swathing, don't hesitate. We wish we were in the field, but we're not.
 
That's from Hale Harvesting. Our friends at Beckley Harvesting Incorporated were enjoying some lights at Trucktown in Colby, Kansas recently. Some really neat pictures there can be found on our Harvest USA report Facebook page and be sure to follow us there.
 
That's going to do it for today's Harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.

Let's check in with Kansas Corn and see how they're doing in Rice County, Kansas.
 
"Matt Splitter, Kansas Corn Growers president, here near Sterling, Kansas between Sterling and Lyons right in the middle of the state. And we are dry. We're very dry here. We have missed most all the rain that has moved through Kansas over the last couple months. We have had less than two inches of total precipitation here for the year, started January 1st. We did find some early moisture to plant into, but we had to stop planters about that second week of April to try to get some rain, try to get some moisture. We had 20 hundreds the other day here at this field. And so we are having some good emergence still, but it is very concerning that we'll get emergence, but it just will sit there. Progress through our area is kind of spotty hit and miss. We're just not seeing the traditional rollout of planters. Everybody going at once. And I think a lot of that has to do with how dry we are. But we've been here before. We'll get through it again. Statistically we get about 28 inches of rain a year here at this location. And we've had less than two at this point. So statistically, we are encouraged that there is more rain to come. And if that rain will come during the growing season, things will look good. Still trying to be as optimistic as we can. But right now it's we're just really, really dry.
 
Matt Splitter, Kansas Corn Growers.
 
Taking a look at the Kansas wheat crop conditions from the NASS... Winter wheat rated 17% very poor, 27% poor, 34% fair, 20% good, and 2%excellent. 

Let's catch the end of that conversation with David Misener and our host David Woodruff.
 
I guess one good thing about it, if there's no wheat, nobody's going to wear out any combines.
 
"No, that's, I can say, that is for sure. I got one guy do some little combine repair for and talk to him this morning and last year he had his engine go down just before the end of harvest and on his combine and he went and bought another one so he could finish harvest and he was wanting to upgrade anyways so that kind of forced him to and sold his broken one. But then because he traded combines he got a bigger one so he sold his old header that was smaller and now he's thinking this isn't the year to be going to buy a header. And I says, well don't worry I ain't going to use both of mine down here because there ain't nothing to do. I said I'll rent you a header so you can go combine what you got for seed wheat. Then he can worry about getting a header for that combine next year. He mentioned that he thinks he's got a good combine and he's pleased with what he bought is just a few, a few years old, less than five and and I told him and he says it'll probably take a few years to wear that thing out and I says well it'll even take a few more years if we have a few consistent years like this year even at that. Don't put hours on you don't wear it out. We'll try and see."
 
We'll sure ask the Lord's blessings on you all. It sure is a rough thing. We'll do what we can and God will bless us with enough that we need. He knows what's going on and we don't and it would be sometimes it'd be nice to have a glimmer of now just what you got in mind there Lord. It's like my old line. I stand by it. You got to be like a doctor and get patients.
 
David Misener with David Woodruff on our Harvest USA report for today.
 
Thanks again for listening and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.

Sounds like our co-host David Woodruff has Dave Misener from Elk City, Oklahoma on the phone today. Let's check in with our David connection.
 
Things are looking like survival mode for you.
 
"Yeah that's that's right there's just I there ain't nobody hardly gonna come down this way to try and harvest something either because it's just it's not there, and you know back to having a few acres to harvest if they do, can't justify doing that, and you know they're trying to make hay because the cattle need to be fed, and love to have something to harvest around here. But if you're able to harvest and get some seed wheat that's about that's about what you're gonna get around here this year and hopefully there is that for everybody around."
 
One guy said Dave this the wheat six inches tall and it's heading out and I'm going oh that doesn't sound very good but yeah no there's I can say there's plenty of it that cattle have been on for a little while. It was intended to harvest and didn't and the cattle are out there eating on that and consume what they can and and then yeah with as warm as we were there a little over a month ago we had a lot of we've had quite a few days. I hate to say it, a month ago that we were up in the hundreds around Easter time and we we had some hundreds and that was just too hot too dry on that that wheat and just it just burnt it up and didn't let it grow and didn't didn't be able to materialize to anything.
 
David Misener from Elk City Oklahoma with our co-host David Woodruff from Alberta Canada.

Tune in to our 'David Connection' on Today's Harvest USA!
 
The conversation with Dave Meisner from Elk City, Oklahoma, discusses the current agricultural difficulties experienced in the region. Meisner highlights the challenges due to dry conditions, which have severely impacted wheat production, posing questions on having sufficient seed wheat. Some areas have received minor rainfall, which is too late for wheat but provides hope for crops like cotton and grass. Farmers are considering innovative approaches like using larger headers for swathing due to the scarcity of harvestable crops.
 
The discussion also touches on the issues faced by farmers in North Dakota, who are struggling with extended winter conditions, preventing them from entering the fields for the planting season. A broader perspective on the high fertilizer costs due to global issues is briefly mentioned, impacting farmers' decisions and operations.

So we're talking to Michael Deacon, Conrad Montana. So how are things looking?
 
"Okay we've got some surface moisture, not a lot of deep moisture. Everybody's getting rolling on spring seeding and yeah so things look good for now but we definitely need some more here shortly."
 
So that last storm that came through hit our country with we about a half an inch of snow or maybe a quarter. Did you get any of that?
 
"Yep, just a skiff of snow."
 
Some beats nothing.
 
"Yep."
 
So do you have any winter wheat?
 
"We do, yeah, we had we did put in some winter wheat. Well and I think just right where we were here because there's some pretty good-looking winter wheat around but yeah ours looks a little spotty in areas. I was gonna go scout it out a little bit and kind of see if we needed to redo a little bit of it but yeah I don't know there's some pretty decent looking winter wheat around."
 
Some pretty good-looking winter wheat in our in our area too.
 
"Good."
 
Do you raise any canola down there?
 
"We don't, no."
 
There is some canola in the neighborhood, I think isn't there?
 
"Yeah there is some I'll see canola every now and then, not a ton like up north, but yeah there's some grown for sure."
 
Lentils and chickpeas and stuff like that, are they good bit dry land?
 
"Yeah yeah there's quite a bit grown. I know the lentil prices are way down this year, so there's I don't think there's quite as much. I think the same on conventional chickpeas. We're doing some organic chickpeas and we haven't done that in a number of years so we'll see how that goes."
 
That was David Woodruff from Alberta Canada talking with Michael Deacon from Conrad Montana.

It's time to take a look at what's going on in the harvest world and we do have some custom harvesters gathering and preparing for harvest. Some are actually getting to work.
 
Friesen Harvesting posted that they had a 'harvesting reunion'. So Freisen Harvesting is ready to go, and Nuemiller Harvesting wrote that the first load of equipment made it to Oklahoma on Saturday and the crew made it back to North Dakota on Sunday. Time to finish getting everything ready and pray that they get in the field very soon.
 
Did you know that in 1790 the first US Census recorded wheat as one of the nation's leading crops. Even in the earliest days of the country wheat played an important role in feeding growing communities and supporting local economies. From those early records to today's farms wheat continues to be a staple that connects the field to the table. That was from the Oklahoma Wheat Commission celebrating America 250.
 
During Texas soil and water stewardship week we're celebrating farmers who work every day to protect one of the most important resources. Healthy soil grows our food and fiber, helps manage and protect water, cycles and stores nutrients and builds resilience season after season. Texas corn producers says they are proud to partner with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts to support stewardship efforts across the state.
 
According to the NASS, for the week ending April 2nd, winter wheat jointed was 86 percent ahead of the 76 percent last year and 67 percent for the five-year average. Headed was 43 percent, well ahead of the 17 percent last year and 11 percent average. Kansas winter wheat ahead of schedule.  

This morning we feature a few updates from harvest crews as well as a piece on land management, written by Clear Creek Ranch Mom Leah Peterson.
 
LISTEN IN!
 
By Leah Peterson
The eastern red cedar is an invasive species, with only one goal in mind. To take over, and ingest every available resource it can suck out of the land.
 
It is quickly spreading and will soon overtake the last stronghold of intact grasslands of Nebraska, in our beloved Sandhills. In my opinion, the cedars have the power to destroy the ranching industry of Nebraska. They are even pretty good at destroying relationships, as evidenced by how people are talking to each other on social media this week, especially in the aftermath of devastating wildfire.
 
While there are many available options used to manage them, the truth is that busy and strapped landowners choose to look the other way, and have done so for a long time. Or have found other reasons and situations that led to the neglect of management.
 
Because of that, our grasslands are now in crisis. The facts ARE that land infested with cedars becomes way more difficult to manage when fire breaks out. They burn hot, they explode and send embers into the atmosphere, and they can smolder and reignite over weeks, and even months.
 
Everyone is allowed an opinion on how to manage them. All I will say, is that people need to quit talking about them, and do something to help wage the war against them.
 
Cost share programs are available, but the hard truth is that this battle requires way more than what they offer. It requires the intestinal will to win.
 
Our last stand, across the Great Plains will include battles over water, working lands, and the resistance against those things that will take them from us.
 
If we want to be respected as stewards of the land, it begins with shovels, chainsaws, gloves, drip torches, plans, prescriptions and the thought that is our obligation to leave things better than we found them.