Our family has harvested grain from day one. Hard Red Winter Wheat is planted each fall and comes up within a few days. In a month or so it produces a lush green grass high in protein, ready to receive cattle on it where they will graze most of the winter. It grows well in the northern U.S. hemisphere and was brought to the U.S. by Mennonite German Russian Immigrants. In March the cattle are taken off and the wheat is then allowed to grow and mature. Around May or June the ripened grain is ready to be cut and thrashed, where the grain is separated from the chaff. My Great Granddad Oscar used a scythe, my Granddad Lenard used a threshing machine, my dad used a cab-less machine complete with an umbrella in the early 50′s, and today our combines have cabs and luxuries such as air conditioners and radios.
Monte, my brother and I spent a lot of hours riding on the combine or in the back of a truck waiting for the grain to be unloaded. Once again this was not the safest thing to do, but remember it was the 50′s.
“1959 Harvest Crew”