On the Road to the Wheat Harvest 4
Life on a customer harvest crew is a lot of “hurry up and wait,” said Brady Cooper of Ponca City, who operates a harvesting crew with fellow Ponca City resident Don Schieber.
Cooper and Schieber had their crews in a 250-acre field west of Walters on Thursday morning, but there was little activity until 1:30 p.m. It was overcast all morning, which meant the moisture levels in the wheat heads were too high to harvest. Then Schieber discovered that a belt needed to be replaced in a combine. He drove to Burkburnett, Texas, to buy a new one. Cost: $152.
The six-man crew enjoyed lunch of hot pizza brought in by one of their co-workers during the noon hour.
Finally, a test cut at about 1 p.m. The moisture content came back at 14.2 percent, a little on the high end. By 1:30, they fired up the three combines and commenced cutting.
For more on the life of a custom harvest crew, see Sunday’s Business Section of The Oklahoman.
Jim Stafford
Business News Writer
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