Published: May 10, 2008 12:19 am            

Custom harvester shortage fears grow

Wheat growers, always at the mercy of the fickle Oklahoma weather, have a new concern this year — whether there will be enough custom harvest crews to help bring in the crop from the fields.

Beginning in May, custom harvesters generally work their way north from Texas with mammoth, diesel-powered combines that make quick work of wheat fields, traveling through Oklahoma, Colo-rado, Kansas and Nebraska.

Despite record prices for wheat, some Oklahoma producers, who are looking at their best wheat crop in several years, say the increasing cost of fuel and scarcity of labor have driven some custom cutters out of business.

“We’ve had two disastrous wheat crops in a row, and for the last two years Oklahoma has been off the radar for custom harvest crews,” said Jack Carson, a spokesman for the state agriculture department. “Some custom harvesters just went out of business.

“It’s due to the increasing cost of machinery, increasing fuel costs ... some people have just said the risk is too high to invest in the custom machinery.”

With Oklahoma’s wheat harvest expected to begin over the next two weeks, the state’s agriculture department has launched an online directory listing custom grain harvesters willing to cut in Oklahoma to help allay farmers’ concerns.

Experts predict this year’s wheat crop in Oklahoma to be at or near an average year, about 150 million bushels. But after suffering through drought in 2006 and flooding during the harvest period in 2007, even an average crop is welcome, especially with wheat prices hovering near $8 per bushel.

But where there is wheat to be harvested, custom cutters have a way of finding it, said Pam Schmidl, operations manager for Hutchinson, Kan.-based U.S. Custom Harvesters.

“There are plenty of guys out there who will go through Oklahoma,” Schmidl said. “Our guys are very well aware of where the wheat is and where it’s not. When it comes down to it, there will be more cutters than there will be fields for them to cut.”

Schmidl agrees the high fuel costs and bureaucratic red tape associated with hiring foreign workers has made it difficult for some custom crews, but she said they’ll find their way to Oklahoma.

A disappointing wheat crop in Texas of an estimated 98.6 million bushels this year, down about 30 percent from last year’s harvest, should expedite the arrival of custom cutters in the Sooner state, Schmidl said.

“(Oklahoma producers) are nervous, they’re excited. The price is up finally, and they want to make it sure they get it cut,” Schmidl said. “There’s going to be plenty of cutters.”