Along The Edge | A Montana Family Harvest Story

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I just I enjoy it a lot of stuff can happen in a typical day in the harvest fields of Montana [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well we're usually up about 6:30 or quarter to 7:00 and typically out the door by about 7:30 and we're fueling up the fuel truck getting things together that we need for the day and into the field bag 30 or so and then we're fueling and freezing and checking the combine and making sure everything is ready to go and then typically about 9 o'clock we will start cutting the modern machinery that came into agriculture is actually phenomenal as far as being able to be more efficient that basically what a lot of it is is just making your parvis more productive this particular spot right here is running 64 to 72 bushel to the acre which is pretty exceptional spot the whole field probably averaged around the mid-50s [Music] that means I went through a green spot and I made a funny Rock this thing is almost idiot proof because it won't let you do things you're not supposed to do I was basically telling me my engine rpm and pull down enough - you better be cautious this new combine or Lester's with the GPS guidance on it and the fact that that 40-foot head can run run through that grain and not miss but an inch you know that headers plumb full then that big machines just processing the grain and that's just amazing you know to watch that thing work well if you have to just go here no what you got my job is to shuttle the grain from the combine in the grain cart across the field to the trucks who are parked you know in the edge of the field so they don't have to run across all the stubble and get all that stuff up in their radiators and Lester first told me he said - your job is to make sure the combines don't stop so I try to make sure I'm set up and you know picking up the full combine when he's good and full and then most of time I have to go get a dump off of the other combine whether he's full or not and then make the run across the field to the trucks we used a grain cart they're loaded on it the combine never has to stop probably one of the handiest and best tools that a farmer can have as far cutting grain anyway unload we gotta get close enough to the trunk but not too close make sure longer to fold out that should put us in position to start filling put her all her out now let's turn the PTO on which runs the augur let's get her up to rpm speed right and start filling with so Sam originally discovered this place when he had some buddies come back to him in Virginia they came out here huntin and just fell in love with the area and with people and so he drives all the way from Virginia to come up here and help us harvest and then he also drives from Virginia every other year to come up here and hunt and enjoy the outdoors well this is very unique country out here and the Missouri Breaks we have very few acres that actually lays flat everything is either up-and-down or around the edge of the breaks and you have a variety of challenges as an operator because the fields are so irregular but you also have the ability to look down in the big canyons and see a variety of wildlife and so for that reason sometimes you can get distracted and looking at the wildlife in our operation we only own one machine for that reason we've always relied on some help from custom cutters we're not in an area where we have a lot of labor it's just easier to in addition to the machine that we already have to just hire a custom cutter and we've been a big believer in that because it speeds up harvest and it allows us to get the crop in in a timely fashion before it can get ruined by whatever Mother Nature throws at you [Music] all probably after about the second or third year I was here I kind of figured out what I supposed to be doing and when the custom cutters showed up one year I'd they were all bunch of little young guys and even though they cut you know thousands and thousands of acres from Oklahoma to Montana you know I try to line them up one day and I said hey we're gonna do this this way of the field this year you know we're gonna make sure that the combines get spaced out we're gonna use the wind in our favor you know we're not gonna be having to combines running back to the back and be trying to dump them and taking all the dust and the chaff out of the front combine so they everybody got a big kick out of that and then the next thing you know I was working on the ten commandments of heart driving and you combine operations so but anyway pretty Sita became the last professional car driver in the world so I've been been hanging out up here for the laven summers and all will see how many more we can crank out Neal contacts yes [Music] every year in agriculture is unique one years not like the next year especially in Montana we started off super wet and then bang no rain and we are hot and dry so we've been to three different combine fires or field fires this year and we've got them under control I feel sorry for the folks to the east of us that eastern Montana that have been through the 250 to 300 thousand acres of burned and entire herds of cattle displaced and just I I take my hat off to him and I and I most especially take my hat off to the people that are pitching in and helping them out amen to that [Music] so my job as it relates to harvest is many many different things and it changes from day to day but I am a truck driver and probably more important than that I'm a logistics person if you will there are several trucks that need to be juggled several grain bands several grain bins sites a couple different augers and all of that needs coordinated based on type of crop moisture of crop so it's it's a lot of logistics and just management so that's probably my key role in addition to driving truck and then another role that is huge is usually and the chief maintenance person and and as things break down I have to fix it we're in Montana which is about 68 miles from home delivering wheat on a forward contract straight off the combine to the elevator so I'm gonna sit here and eat whoopie pies my cameraman is gonna get out and open the tarp because it's you cannot pull onto the scale unless your tarp is open reason for that is they have a hydraulic probe that will come over and throw both hoppers for a sample well up to this thing and you get a lottery ticket whether you won the law that didn't win gonna have to keep farming [Music] [Music] [Music] either pad or air and will rotate days with supper and you know they bring it out in the pickup truck and then we'll get out some little chairs and they'll set a table up and put the food out there and plates and forks and spoons and knives and and we all sit around the whole crew we you know everybody's there enjoying that suppertime meal that's it's it's just a good event and we get to check in with everybody and I'll usually ask Aaron what's going on in the world during the day and and but yeah I get to see all the kids and you know just everybody it's it's a great great experience good fellowship app to eat our chicken noodles and carrots oh and I gotta eat it on the mashed potatoes so it looks pretty yummy so we're gonna try we're not gonna mess with it but noodles and mashed potatoes will starch on starch here hey but it's pretty darn good [Music] [Music] Hey look at us two old farts you lie here develop at Montana wheat field late at night he's telling me he's warm he says ain't I'll be careful yeah photographer in front of you right here when we've got that out alone I said yeah damn paparazzi's always any farmer will tell you that he has to make money of being in the farming game and that is part of the operation but when you really look at it agriculture is all about feeding our country and a lot of other countries in this world market that we're in right now that's one of the reasons that we are trying to diversify into different crops because right now a lot of your peas and lentils actually end up going to a different country which they use as a primary source of protein for that reason I feel that we are stewards of the land and the fact that we're trying to help feed the whole world I just I enjoy it you know where else gonna what we may I'd like me get to run up 255 horsepower John Deere tractor all of that you know agriculture needs people production agriculture needs people but not just their agriculture is huge it's a huge industry and I'm just glad I get to represent a very small piece of it [Music] telling these stories well it's important for about eight years now I've been making these harvest videos that I put on YouTube then it gives people a glimpse it what that scene is like because so many now have no idea more and more people are just becoming disconnected from what agriculture is and it's led to a lot of misconceptions we need to tell these stories but agriculture is a very large and very diverse industry there's just so many different fields in it and that's a lot to cover so as far as telling agriculture story well we've just begun [Music]

Channel: AgriStudios

Views: 528,428

Rating: 4.948997 out of 5

Keywords: Slivka Harvest 2017, AgriStudios, Riley Slivka, wheat harvest, Montana, Winifred, barley harvest, peas, big harvest, epic, farming, agriculture, Missouri Breaks, Missouri River, mountains, cliffs, harvest, combine, J&M, Grain Cart, CaseIH, John Deere, Scenic, Drone, DJI, Inspire

Id: 6JvlGSnYJA0

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Lagarb]

That was awesome, thank you for taking the time to put that together. Very cool and informative!

A breathtaking glimpse into the life of current day agriculture, the people (and families) behind it, and its equipment!