Bigskyfarmher

07/27/2024

It’s my favorite time of the year - harvest season and a side of the Olympics … I just have this weekend off and am headed back to California next week for work.

But I’ll be back in Montana on vacation for the second half of harvest the week after.

06/23/2024

Congratulations and thank you to our neighbor for her service to Montana and US Wheat Growers over the past nine years!!

So many miles and trade missions and advancing the story of Montana and US Farmers to our critical and emerging trade partners!

Great Falls, MT – Finishing three terms, Denise Conover of Broadview, MT is hanging up her work boots with the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee (MWBC). Th

08/27/2023

Well it’s been a minute.

And just like the the 2023 crop year basically ended a few weeks ago - we just have some safflower out.

And what a year it was. Record year for wheat and near record for barley. June was the wettest on record and pulled us from drought or emerging drought conditions into a summer to remember.

And this field particularly - I never want to forget.

06/03/2023

It’s hard to explain the magnitude of the last 48 hours other than wow ….

There are rainstorms or months we remember forever ….

August 2014, May 2011 to name a few. But June 1-2 will go down in history.

Officially at our house we have 6”. SIX … almost half our normal annual total. 3x our normal June total. Any other area reports I’ve heard are all over 5” so this was a relatively widespread total for our local area.

Since the 2021 drought broke - we’ve barely hung on outside of drought range and benefited from super timely rains in 2022. The reservoirs and springs have never recovered. We were starting to see the beginning of irreversible crop stress on the east side of town. This weekend certainly fixed that.

That’s the “Gooseneck” in the picture. It hasn’t had that much water since a Memorial Day flash flood in 2018 that dropped 3.5”. That also shows you how much we had to recover. The ground held all of this water insanely well - and thankfully it came down as slow as 6” in 48 hours can come down.

Field work and haying season are on an indefinite delay now. 😂

11/13/2022

I don’t often post non-agriculture related … but am so excited for our small town football team.

Headed to the state championship for the first time in co-op (and town) history!

10/23/2022

All the technology available in agriculture and we still end up with a lot of year end paperwork. 😂

Reconciling our online and cloud data to file production records with insurance, seeding reports to the FSA, maintaining a solid production record in case of audits …

Sigh.

Makes for a long Saturday and Sunday as I try to fit this in with my other job. Good thing there’s coffee, football and an occasional game of Yahtzee.

09/04/2022

Labor Day Weekend … the unofficial end of summer.

Except in Montana it’s nearly 100 degrees - almost 20 degrees above average and very dry.

Most years we’re gearing up to start seeding winter wheat in a few days. Not this year. We’re in a holding pattern unfortunately until it starts to rain.

Technically in our area we have until November to seed winter wheat - but we also know, history tells us that the early seeded the wheat is, the better it yields. So we prefer to start early and be done by late September.

Likely won’t happen this year unless we see a substantial shift in the weather forecasts.

08/12/2022

On to the last field and the last 100 acres … and wheat and barley harvest will be wrapped up for 2022.

Summary:
Wheat - yield was above average with good protein and test weight.

Barley - yield was above average but low test weight is super disappointing and we will likely not raise Synergy again.

Montana Grain Growers Association U.S. Wheat

08/09/2022

Fill’em up.

I consider our storage options one of the most valuable investments in infrastructure we’ve made over the last 3 generations.

We have over 130,000 bushels worth of storage that we own at the farm. We also hold an invaluable lease for this 50,000 bushel bin.

Not only do the air systems in our bins let us harvest earlier than most - we can also harvest with less labor as we’re not trying to haul 30+ miles one way to the elevator from the field.

We’re just headed on short hauls to our bins - and our incredibly efficient drive over deck and large auger.

It also allows us to be very strategic with our marketing. We market very little for harvest delivery when prices tend to be the lowest. We’ll spend most of the winter sending wheat to town for our October-March contracts. Eventually by next harvest all of it should be gone.

It’s infrastructure that is slightly harder to see the return on - but if you look closely it’s more than there.

08/05/2022

A nuisance shower came through this evening stopping harvest for the day.

So a stop at the local waterhole it is.

Who happens to stock one of my favorite beers Razzu Wheat beer.

08/01/2022

He really is a whole vibe.

Living his best life - he’s so excited for harvest and has spent quite a few hours in the buddy seat. His brother has largely been occupying the passenger seat of his Papa’s truck.

It was fitting that he wore his Red Ants Pants Foundation shirt yesterday though on the last day of the annual Red Ants Pants Music Festival … and annual event up in White Sulfur Springs.

Red Ants Pants is an awesome organization that not only makes great workwear specifically for women - also has a mission to protect family farms, rural communities and get more women in leadership roles.

07/30/2022

It’s harvest time.

It’s also very hot and dry!

Be safe out there friends! And make sure you have fire equipment (water, disks, fire extinguishers in the field with you).

** origin of that fire in the background unknown at this time. Broadview Volunteer Fire District and many other departments are currently on scene trying to get it under control.

U.S. Wheat National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Montana Grain Growers Association