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Kaleb Ellis operates combine number 7. His fellow crew members thought it was jinxed by his John Deere belt buckle.
Garbanzo beans play an important part in the Boyer crop rotation. They're bagged and marketed all across the United States and around the world.
Fire is a constant concern for harvest crews. This combine had a burnt conveyor belt. Buck Boyer has his own fire equipment that travels with the crew for quick response.
The steepest field harvested was a 73-percent slope. Ellis starts on a 37-percent slope his first day on the job. It made his hilly western-Wisconsin farm look mild.
Although the land is steep and rocky, the soil is very fertile in the Palouse Hills.
Good weather prevails for most of the harvest, though rain catches up to the crew while working on the Nez Perce reservation. Ellis says he was impressed on how well the Case combines worked with less than optimal moisture in the wheat.
The combines use a 45-foot MacDon head with special augers on the draper belts to pull the wheat up to flow into the feeder house of the combine.
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Kaleb Ellis says it was an adrenaline rush to combine the steep hillsides. Some of the hills were too steep for the contour and needed to be harvested by driving straight up and down.
A combine heads down a highway between farms. When necessary, crews use an interstate highway; they have flaggers to warn traffic of the slow movement.
Kaleb Ellis says he found combining in the West a challenge because of different slopes in the fields. He learned a lot about how to open a field and manipulate around in them.
Kaleb Ellis, 18, spent summer 2023 driving combine for Boyer Farms in Washington state and Idaho.
Editor’s note: The first half of this two-part story was published in the Jan. 11 issue of Agri-View.
LeeAnne Bulman
LeeAnne Bulman writes about agriculture from her farm overlooking the beautiful Danuser Valley on Wisconsin’s west coast. Email genwim2@gmail.com to reach her.
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MONTANA, Wis. – A desire to follow in his father’s footsteps led Kaleb Ellis on an adventure of a lifetime – harvesting wheat in Washington st…
Good weather prevails for most of the harvest, though rain catches up to the crew while working on the Nez Perce reservation. Ellis says he was impressed on how well the Case combines worked with less than optimal moisture in the wheat.
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