a wheat farmer's bread

I mentioned to a friend here in Denver it had been a decade since I bought a loaf of bread and his expression of being stunned in response was comical. But that was without thinking first. I actually did buy a loaf, and carefully chosen too for its multiple grains, but once home it was so oddly unlike real bread I had become used to that I threw it away. So I lied there. And I realized how fast time is flying, it's been closer to two decades. One loaf of bread in two decades and that one tossed out in disgust.

And that got me thinking what does Dean the wheat farmer do. So I asked him. He has a hired hand who cooks like a chef. I was out there one weekend with my dog, rode a tractor around all day grooming a field, and met him and ate his lunches and dinners, but I didn't notice anything particular about bread. I also asked about harvest because it is that time of year. My inquiry included a few links to bread, tortillas, pastry, pie crusts and such. I mentioned sometimes I buy grain and mill it. Nothing judgmental, he is more busy than I, there is no reason for him not to buy things, just curious. His careful thoughtful response follows.




Chip, Oh dear gawd, confessions of a wheat farmer, how embarrassing to tell you that I buy the 98 cent loaf of white sandwich bread @ Walmart, usually 5 loaves at a time because my freezer shelf has room for 5 and I like how it thaws so quickly without losing any of its tasteless doughiness, just the right amount of "air" and knowing that human hands or bakers with hair nets have never been any where close to it's final wrapping in cellophane.

I do still have my first flour mill in it's original box stored on the back porch. I remember, years ago, when I wanted to show a young nephew how wheat was made into flour & how shocked I was to find so much mold, like intense spider webbing, had encased the mill when I knew damn well I had cleaned it before packing it away. I also remember how much wheat I had to slowly pour into it before I even had 1/2 a cup of flour. Sheesh. And then, of course, the amount of wheat flour dust in the air after its use. No thanks, I'll take Walmart any day. Though I will admit that after having dinner at a farm neighbor's home recently where the "farm wife" made homemade dinner rolls from scratch was a real treat (store bought flour of course).

Oddly enough, years and years ago, I remember meeting a fellow Nebraskan, I think his family was from Ord, Nebraska. I think his name was Ed, can't remember his last name. Nice enough guy, but an alcoholic with a hideous toupee. His family had a huge mansion overlooking Cherry Creek Country Club, a virtual fortress with stone wall enclosure, absolutely lovely, and I inquired where his families wealth had come from. I was told one of his fore bearers had invented the process to bleach wheat flour to white. I should "google" that to see if there was any validity to that story.

Harvest date can be roughly calculated by adding 6 weeks to the day you first notice the wheat forming its "head." At that time I forecast a harvest starting date around July 10th. Timely rains turned that once bleak looking crop into a miraculous sight, every kernel in that "head" filled in and lower temperatures kept the berry plump and filled with it's milky liquid. (Our usual high July temperatures will prevent the lower berries in the head from forming & the kernel will shrivel or shrink into a more rice-like kernel, which drops it's test weight & protein level). Every load delivered to the grain elevator is tested for moisture content, weight and protein. Due to even more rain, usually accompanied with small, pea size hail, delayed my harvest start date to July 20th, one of the latest start date in decades. Though those neighbor farmers who have implemented the new "chemical fallow" method had a more normal start date & were nearly finished before I even got started. Nothing like watching your close neighbors harvest a record wheat crop while your own wheat is still 10 days away from ripening. Very stressful. I have always hired two separate harvest crews, dividing the farm in half, 1500 acres to each crew. My Texas crew showed up with only 3 combines & 3 semi trucks instead of their usual 4. They have difficulty finding seasonal help and the government now requires CDL driver licenses for all grain trucks. Obviously younger men with those licenses would rather work for the major over-the-road freight haulers than a gypsy type lifestyle of cheap motels & campgrounds of the harvest crews. My Kansas crew, two brothers, one with a new wife & baby, decided not to participate in this years harvest, a nagging wife with infant said, "NO WAY!" So I was left with only 3 combines for the entire farm. Fuck.

Now I should explain the payment process for harvest crews. It's a triple whammy. (1) Price per acre. (2) price per bushel hauled and (3) price per bushel over 20 bushels per acre. (number 3 was invented as an added fee for machinery maintenance costs, as the heavier yields are supposedly harder on the thrashing mechanisms within the combine.) I was told that the going rate this year would be the highest ever due not only to the increase in the price of fuel but also the exorbitant price of these new combines, most are now in the $340,000 range. I was first quoted three 24's, meaning $24 dollars an acre to cut, 24 cents per bushel to haul and 24 cents per bushel for yields over 20. Since I only had the one crew I offered the entire farm acreage to that crew if they would cut it for three 21's instead of the 24's and I based my initial cost at the normal average of 45 bushels per acre. My first field cut made 67 bushels per acre. My second field produced 63 bushels per acre and my third, the absolute poorest soils on my farm cut out at 55 bushels per acre. So my estimated $115,200 harvest cost is out the window. I have under estimated by nearly $30,000.

We finished harvesting in a pouring rain last evening. Two neighbors who had finished earlier in the day sent one combine each from their crews to help me finish when yesterdays weather forecast was 70% chance of rain. I gave those extra combines 160 acres each & thank heavens they got it cut when they did or I'd be sitting here for days waiting for the ground to dry up. I should mention that after 3 days of cutting I had yet another inch rain with hail on the 23rd followed by a 1/10 of an inch the next morning on the 24th. Two fields, one 20 miles away and the other, 5 miles away, had less rain so we weren't completely shut down, but still had to wait two days for the rest of the farm to dry out before we were able to resume cutting. Now mind you, all of my terrace bottoms, low laying pond areas and waterways which have the most lush wheat of all still remain in the fields. These harvest crews must move on to their next jobs in the Dakota's so I won't be able to harvest those areas until I can find a neighbor with his own combine to help me harvest those at a later date, believe me, thousands of bushels are still in the fields. We cannot approach those wet areas because the combines leave such deep ruts in the mud and I already have many of those ruts to repair. Luckily, we didn't have any combines get stuck in the mud this year, they are nearly impossible to pull out when they do get stuck.

Today is pay day for the harvesters. I'm stressed to the max & sick to my stomach. In any given year I would have sold at least 15,000 bushels on 2014 forward contracts to help with harvest cost. Wheat prices steadily improved last March thru April, reaching a high of $7.88 per bushel. I only sold 3500 bushels when it reached $7.50. I was too worried to sell any more in advance because I didn't think we were even going to have a wheat crop back then. I think I had already told you that my wheat had retracted to below the soil surface & that my land, without any cover crop, was blowing away in the winter & spring high winds.
So later this morning I have to sell part of this year's delivered crop @ $5.47 per bushel, over 20,000 bushels just to pay for the cutting. Now remember, even though I've just completed a record harvest, even my cooperative grain elevator with a 2 million bushel storage capacity is full (I had to haul these last harvested fields to a privately owned elevator @ a much greater distance from the farm, an elevator where I don't own any of their stock & luckily still had an account set up there where they didn't turn away my trucks, not having delivered there for over 6 years,( as they did turn away & refused dumping some of my neighbors trucks who had never delivered there before.)

Can hardly believe it's already August,  meaning I'm only 25 days away from planting the 2015 crop. I think I told you I was doing 1/2 the farm in the time tested summer fallow method and 1/2 the farm to the new chemical fallow method. You won't believe this, but on my new chemical fallow land, there is a new glysophate (chemical poison) resistant weed in those fields. We have sprayed twice and nothing has worked to kill them. The plant scientist who I had out to inspect suggested I convert 3 fields back to my standard tilling summer fallow method because the weed concentration was too severe and the available poison that would kill this particular weed can't be used unless you are over 60 days away from planting. So my hired hand and I are getting up early in the morning while it's still cool to hand spray these diagonal stripes of weeds throughout my fields with a stronger dose of useable poison, it barely phases them, just curling & yellowing the top leaves to prevent seed formation. Good exercise since some of them are a mile long. I have chemical fallow neighbors now calling me & asking what chemical I'm using, isn't that funny? Little do they know I'm mixing my own formula with a ground sterilizer. One thing for certain, I'll take this rainy wet year over a drought any day. Now that the wheat has been harvested, what with all this moisture, those harvested wheat fields will turn into a vibrant green with every weed imaginable in a few short days. I ordered an immediate chemical spraying of the stubble fields. We were able to spray 8 fields yesterday before the rain. Another oddity is the fact that the chemical poison they use in the stubble needs a rain to activate so I lucked out in that regard last night.

I hate to end on this note, but I absolutely love Arby's breakfast Ham & Cheese croissants @ two for $3.00. I will have those later this morning when I write those damn checks for $145,000. Later dear friend. Dean