Combines custom cutters outlook for 2001IJ

As everybody knows the wheatcrop doesn't look good. I personally think that some cutters with fancy new machines are already broke. They just don't know it.

You never know from year to year what will come of it, down south some areas sound good some sound bad. I keep in touch with my farmes pretty regualar and it sounds like one job in Kansas was planted about half on time and half a little close to being to late, but only time will tell. There is a lot of custom cutters giving it up I have 2 friends who said no more and I ended up picking up a couple of jobs what fit into my run, if all goes well I might not fill my pockets but hope I can make it through another year and hope for better the next year, all it boils down to is being in the right place at the right time. One of my biggest jobs is all irrigated barley planted in the spring and we always get good acreage there and they have good yields, so I am not to concerned but hope the best of luck for the rest of the fellow harvesters out there trying to make it work. I know the times are tough and sometimes you feel like you are spinning your wheels and getting nowhere but I love this lifestyle as I was born into it and I will do it as long as I can then if it no longer works I will face the day and pursue different interests.... Good luck to all....

Our family run the harvest runs for 20 years. We sold out in 1994 after a bad year. We cut grains from Knox City Texas to the upper Snake River valley in SE Idaho. There isn't a day goes by that I don't wonder how I might have saved it. We was in a bind and I went to see a lawyer about reorganizing. He talked me into backruptsy, And said I would only prolong the hard times. He might have been right but I have tried since then to find another direction in life. I can find nothing. I have been truck driving ever sense. If I could do it over, I would fight like hell to keep it. CM

Combineman I know what you mean about not finding another direction in life. I am facing this same thing here. My family have been farming for years and we have been able to surive hardships throughout the years. I took up business and thought I'd get into it, and move away from farming since hardships is always hanging around, but my heart refuses to give up something I have loved deeply for years. I am just about to wrap up with college, and yet, my heart is still set on farming and custom harvesting, so I dont know whats gonna happen from there. I have been thinking about extending our family's harvesting business to out of states harvests so we can make a little more. I just hope things turn out for better in the ag industry soon.