Unconventional winter wheat harvest

At Brockel Land Company, LLC, just outside city limits of Bison, a 220-acre field of winter wheat was being chopped for silage on Thursday and Friday, June 25 & 26.  Brian LaDue, operator, had Willow Creek forage winter wheat planted last fall with the expectation of harvesting his crop, not for grain, but for feed for his cattle this winter.  Typically, and historically, winter wheat has been a cash grain crop in our part of the state.  But cash prices for winter wheat have remained low for a long time.  So low, in fact, it is no longer profitable to grow as a grain crop.  Thankfully, farmers can still get a jump on spring planting by growing fall-planted forage crops.  

Ethan Schemmel and his crew from Plum Creek Forage of Canton, SD came in with a Claas 990 forage harvester and 2 Peter-built semis with live bottom trailers and started sheering off the wheat on Thursday morning.  Wheat on the west side of the field measured just under 5' tall at 58”.  Averaging 7-8 miles per hour, it was a blast watching this machine gobble up the wheat and throw it out the spout into the semis following either behind or along side.  Dump site for these trucks wasn't far away, but they were still racing to keep up. Frank Schemmel was the packer with a 9520R John Deere tractor and dozer attachment.  This field averaged 10 tons per acre.

A rain delay on Friday morning kept the crew in the field a little longer than they intended.  But they finished up by middle afternoon and were loaded and headed down the road to their next job by 5 PM.

See page 5 for more.