A week ago we began our wheat harvest, so that will consume all of our time for at least the next two weeks. This is the wheat farmer’s payday for a whole year of work. Many of you may be wondering how it is going so I will give you an update. So far the wheat has not been very good. But even so, we are calling it the miracle crop because it could be worse considering what it has been through.

It started out last summer and fall during tilling and planting seasons in a drought. A local farmer kept track of the rain totals in our area. His records show we received five inches of rain when we normally average thirty. In March, we had unusually warm weather and a lot of the wheat headed out (began to form grain in the heads). Then in April it turned cold and it got well below freezing for about three nights. It even snowed.

It was quite a sight to see snow on the ground with green grass peeking through. On top of that, this spring we began to receive some of the rain we had missed last fall, which started a fungus called rust in some of the wheat. But the rain perked the wheat up making it look thick with long heads giving the farmers some hope until they realized the full extent of the freeze damage. The heads never completely filled and the freeze also weakened the stalks where some of the wheat is laying down. This makes it take longer to cut because the combines have to put their headers very low to the ground to pick it up.

So far I probably sound depressing, but I’ve been farming long enough to know you have good years and bad years. My parents raised me to believe compulsive gambling is a sin, but farming is a constant gamble where we depend on the weather and the markets. But God always finds a way to meet our needs. Looking back at the past two years only makes me more optimistic for the future. I know a good year is that much closer.

Chad enjoys harvest even on the bad years and our two oldest sons can’t get enough of riding on the combine. I’m sure there aren’t many children their age getting up at 6:00a.m. and getting home at 11:00p.m. But I think they are catching some naps while riding on the combine. They insist they have to be out in the field with their dad every minute. But don’t think it is all fun for them, they have responsibilities like fueling and greasing the combines.

A highlight I might add is that wheat jumped up .30 cents on Monday. This is the maximum amount it can go up in one day. Then on Tuesday it went up another .10 cents. I guess they realize there isn’t going to be much wheat. Some of the farmers in our area that had crop insurance had their fields adjusted because they didn’t think there was enough wheat out there to pay for the cost of cutting it. I heard estimates as low as .7 bushel to the acre (yes that is point 7). On a normal year, the average in this area would be about 40 bushel to the acre.

I thought you might enjoy some facts about wheat. Wheat is measured in bushels and a bushel weights 60 pounds. Approximately 73 loaves of bread can be made out of 1 bushel of wheat. The farmer receives approximately 5 cents from a loaf of bread. In 1917, a farmer could sell a bushel for $3.17 and in May 2002 the average price was $2.61. My dad bought a new Case four-wheel drive tractor in 1971 for $18,000. Today a new STX Case tractor or a John Deere 9220 tractor is about $170,000. That may help people to understand why government payments are so necessary. If only we could multiply the price of wheat by the same number they used to raise the price of fuel, fertilizer, land and equipment.