Bringing in the Crops

They came from Ireland and England to learn about American agricultural practices. Early in the season, they learned about harvesting at a contract harvesting outfit in Edson, Kansas. Then it was life on the road bringing in crops in Oklahoma and moving north with the harvest season. This time we catch up with them as they bring in a harvest of wheat in Montana. It’s a journey that has taught them about farming and life.

Behind the wheels of these combines in the fields and the trucks hauling the grain aren’t seasoned farmers from the heartlan they’re fresh-faced young men from across the Atlantic. One of them is Ireland’s Sean Keegan, “It’s very exciting, because we are; we are getting to see something new, the next move. We have to push extremely hard, and I never felt caught up all summer. We’re getting close now. We go, you know we’re getting to see a new path of America and new ways that things are being done.”

Sean is one of a handful of foreign workers for Farris Brothers Incorporated. These young men signed up to work with Farris through an Ohio State University work exchange program. The harvesters’ journey started around the end of May in Oklahoma. 

It’s now mid-August, 1800 miles later and they are in northern Montana. Way northern Montana.  They are harvesting right along the US Canadian border. Sean says, “Back at home, we’re used to one base. And we might travel we’ll say, a 20 mile radius to the wall or walk.  But here, I think it’s somewhere up around nearly 1800 miles we’ve traveled seeing that vast scenery and everything like, the vast amount of traveling we’ve done to complete the harvest, like, has been great.”

Rick Farris has been traveling the country harvesting since he was a young man, following in his father’s footsteps.   He and his nephew run the company now. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment and manpower, farmers like Montana’s Don Nagy contract with Rick and his team to arrive each year just in time to harvest their crops.   

Don farms 4-thousand acres of wheat, barely and canola. As Don says, “Rick comes in and is able to do it far more efficiently, obviously quicker than we can.  He’s been cutting our crops since,
I believe 1986 for us and just does a fantastic job.
 
We’re always happy with the quality of work that’s done. “
Many of the young harvesters come from farming backgrounds but not quite on the scale of American agriculture. Their used to smaller plots of land and smaller equipment, so before their nearly 2-thousand mile harvesting trip begins they go through several weeks of training. 

Call it Farris University, learning about calibrating combine gears or simply how to drive these big machines. It’s here where they also get used to their summer living arrangements.  Bunk beds in RV’s for the entire crew.  Before setting out, Sean was excited about his impending harvesting adventure. But 13 weeks later in Montana, is he still feeling as positive? He says, “We’re working well as a team, we’re working fairly well, like.  So, I think we are. You know, I’m not sure what everybody else thinks. But we haven’t had any rows so far. I mean we’ve all gotten along well.”

Rick Farris agrees, “You got a sense of accomplishment when you haul that load of grain in and dump it that sense of accomplishment is a big deal to these young men.”
    
After a 13 hour day in the field, the crew comes in to get a few hours of rest.  Their accommodations for this round of harvesting: the back lot of a roadside greasy spoon.

The restaurant owner leaves the fryers on past closing time for these weary harvesting warriors.  There’s just enough time for a game of pool and some biscuits and gravy.

Sean says it’s a chance to meet the locals, “People have been good. Every restaurant we’ve been into, people have been asking us, “Oh, where are you from?” And they’ve been really friendly to us like.  So definitely they’ve made us feel welcome here. “

This year’s harvest is winding down.  Soon these young men will return to their homelands with their own tales from America’s heartland.  Until then…it’s time to get some rest.

Montana Farming Facts
While Montana gets its nickname as the “Treasure State” because of the importance of mining, the state is also one of America’s largest producers of Wheat and Barley. In fact, Montana produces more than 5 million acres of wheat crops each year. One other Ag fact about Montana. It ranks in the top five as a producer of Honeybee Colonies.