following the wheat harvest.

Oldcountryboy · #1 05/12/12, 03:27 PM

Been thinking about finding a seasonal job for the summer months. After next week my kids will have left to be with their mom for the summer. So I've been thinking about taking off to western Oklahoma and following the wheat harvest for extra money.

Anyone ever done this? How difficult is it to operate those big combines? Any other advice on this issue?

Sawmill Jim · #2 05/12/12, 04:52 PM

Son was a truck driver he loved it .Think you travel and sleep where you drop .Think he got off somewhere in Texas .Don't know if he still has any contacts or not .

coolrunnin · #3 05/12/12, 05:16 PM

I went many years ago.

Back then they started you in the trucks or the tractor and you worked up to the combines lots of hours lots of traveling.

But it is also lots of fun for a single guy.

rancher1913 · #4 05/12/12, 06:17 PM

yah great for singles. when its right to cut you put in long hours and when its wet or not yet ripe you have a lot of down time. anymore its not like it was when i did it--we started in texas and cut to cananda. nowadays rigs stay closer to home and just cut in a wide area around there home base.

coolrunnin · #5 05/12/12, 07:08 PM

I went 2 seasons in 78-79 and we started in southern Oklahoma and ended in Montana.

I surely did have a ball.

Big Dave · #6 05/12/12, 07:15 PM

Stay in touch.

Molly Mckee · #7 05/12/12, 07:19 PM

If you can drive equipment or trucks , it's not hard at all to drive a combine. It's easier than driving the grain trucks! IMO

FarmboyBill · #8 05/12/12, 07:43 PM

Neighbor took me and bro out around 60. We slept under the trucks while he and son slept in motal. We scooped grain only. I remember there still being big combines being pulled by catapillers yet. We didnt like it. Didnt make much either. BUT, we didnt like being away from home.

big rockpile · #9 05/12/12, 09:30 PM

If your tierd them Combines will sing you to sleep.I know seen it plenty of times.

big rockpile

Oldcountryboy · #10 05/12/12, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolrunnin

I went 2 seasons in 78-79 and we started in southern Oklahoma and ended in Montana.

I surely did have a ball.

How many weeks did it take to get up to and finish Montana? I figure I'll only have about 8 weeks to work and then I'll be heading back home.

WJMartin · #11 05/12/12, 10:29 PM

Unless you have a contact person you may have difficulty finding a crew to work with. There just aren't as many crews as there used to be. However, the wheat fields are looking fantastic this year so there may be more work than in years past.
If you don't have a contact you might try one of the ext. agents.

Bandit · #12 05/12/12, 10:35 PM

In the RV forums in the workamper sub forums they often talk about doing this for Hard Earned but Good Money .
Do You have access to a RV ?
Sugar Beet Harvest
Working on the RV road

coolrunnin · #13 05/12/12, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldcountryboy

How many weeks did it take to get up to and finish Montana? I figure I'll only have about 8 weeks to work and then I'll be heading back home.

We started mid June and finished in late september.

Classof66 · #14 05/12/12, 11:09 PM

My son worked on a crew in 95 and 96. In fact I put him on the bus on Mothers Day in 95. I happened to meet a custom harvester and because my son was so young, he suggested he sign up an agency. We got several calls, and he ended signing on with a family operation in western Kansas. They started in Oklahoma and worked into Canada. He was 17 years old, and depressed over his dad leaving us. This was probably one of the best things that ever happened to him. The crew lived in a converted school bus. Most of the wheat belt towns are set up for the harvest crews, with places to camp and hookups. He made 1200 per month, everything was furnished. I had him on my insurance at my work. I think he mostly drove trucks, semis, a good skill to know. He saw a lot of country and met a lot of people. The employers family became family to him, he often said that one of them was more father to him than his own father had ever been. They were good decent people. I would suppose not every crew is this great, but for my son it was a good experience.

He came back home to Illinois at the end of his second season, but his heart was in western Kansas, and he moved back there. He worked in a grain elevator a couple years.

Now he is a train engineer.

I don't think everyone is cut out for this work, I doubt a lot of 17 year old's are mature enough. I think my son would tell you these were the best summers of his life.

Bandit · #15 05/12/12, 11:13 PM

As much as I would enjoy following the harvest , at My age the reality of to many years crawling under and over big trucks in ice and snow . Leaves Me more like working as a Gate Guard in the Tx. oil fields .
With a setup something like this ( and the wife likes the idea )
http://www.myoldrv.com/wp-content/up...012/04/002.jpg

Sawmill Jim · #16 05/13/12, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandit

As much as I would enjoy following the harvest , at My age the reality of to many years crawling under and over big trucks in ice and snow . Leaves Me more like working as a Gate Guard in the Tx. oil fields .
With a setup something like this ( and the wife likes the idea )
http://www.myoldrv.com/wp-content/up...012/04/002.jpg

If we didn't have so many critters i'd take the gate guard on the other shift .That rig in the background makes my old feet itch

Bandit · #17 05/13/12, 10:32 AM

Jim
If You want to pm Me , I can send you some links with some great info and stories ,
It pays from $ 125 to $ 175 a day with Elect , water and sewage provided , and with both of you working 24/7 you can really save some $$$$ .
( For 30 days thats $ 5250 then You get to deduct expenses as an Independent Contractor , like the RV . LOL
We were ready to build a Skoolie and take off and the wife got called for a full time job after over 2 1/2 yrs. of trying to find one .
I found a nice 92 in upstate Ny. for $2500 that had just passed its full DOT insp. in Feb. and was just taken out of service .
No Way would I drive a Newer RV out into the Texas Brush to the well sights with the roads , winds , and blowing sands .
Bob

Jim
Check out my post here to see what we want to do
How to discourage folks coming to the door.
( I like to hide my thoughts in different places ) LOL

BobbyB · #18 05/13/12, 11:09 AM

I seriously doubt you will walk up an land a job operating a combine. Not unless you have a bunch of provable experience.

Maybe an auger cart operator, or truck driver.

My Dad, younger brother and myself used to do custom harvesting. We stayed in our home county, but had several clients.

As expensive as equipment is to buy and repair, any down time is money as well as loss time in the field because the operator cant keep the pace.

I knew one guy that went North to start his crew in wheat, finished and went to the Rio Grande Valley for milo and by the time he cut his way North home again, his crops were ready and then he was finished til the next year.

My brother and I were in the planning stages of doing the same thing when he was killed in an auto accident.

Classof66 · #19 05/13/12, 04:41 PM

The second year my son went they got to Oklahoma and they had nonstop rain and couldn't get started. The guys got together and voted to stay on without pay until they were able to work. I had one of those "proud mom" moments over that.

Sawmill Jim · #20 05/13/12, 10:26 PM

[QUOTE=Bandit;5895232]Jim
If You want to pm Me , I can send you some links with some great info and stories ,
It pays from $ 125 to $ 175 a day with Elect , water and sewage provided , and with both of you working 24/7 you can really save some $$$$ .
( For 30 days thats $ 5250 then You get to deduct expenses as an Independent Contractor , like the RV . LOL
We were ready to build a Skoolie and take off and the wife got called for a full time job after over 2 1/2 yrs. of trying to find one .
I found a nice 92 in upstate Ny. for $2500 that had just passed its full DOT insp. in Feb. and was just taken out of service .
No Way would I drive a Newer RV out into the Texas Brush to the well sights with the roads , winds , and blowing sands .
Bob

Thanks i got to many critters here and everything paid for .I just got a weakness for the oil patch .Now if i was in need of money i would go in a second one way or the other .I worked in the Rockies in Co.