“We’re probably about three or four days behind where we would like to be,” says Paul Paplow of US Custom Harvesters, describing the start to the 2025 harvest season. Recent excessive rainfall has created challenging conditions for harvesters, leading to delays and concerns about crop quality.
Paplow’s operation is currently spread across several states, with machines in Kiowa and Anthony, Kansas, Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and one still in Wichita Falls, Texas. The varying locations highlight the impact of the widespread rain. “We’ve had tons of rain in Oklahoma. I don’t think Kansas has had quite as much, but still has had quite a bit of rain,” notes farm director KC Sheperd.
The persistent wet weather has taken a toll on wheat quality, particularly in areas that received the heaviest downpours. “Quality is pretty decent. Still, the wheat is definitely bleached out,” Paplow reports from Kiowa, Kansas, where he’s observing around a 58-pound test weight. He contrasts this with Anthony, Kansas, where the wheat was less ripe when the rains hit, resulting in a little bit better quality and test weights around 61-62 pounds. A specific instance of concern included some wheat testing at 51 pounds, which Paplow attributed to a mosaic disease issue.
Beyond quality, the saturated ground presents a significant obstacle to harvesting. “We’ve been kind of battling the rain and being able to even get into the fields with so much rain,” Sheperd emphasizes. Paplow confirms the difficulty, though he notes some relief in fields that were heavily grazed during winter. “The stuff we’re doing now is pretty heavily grazed throughout the winter, so that kind of helps pack the ground,” he explains. However, ungrazed fields are “definitely a lot softer, and they’ve been dealing with mud.”
Despite the hurdles, Paplow’s team has managed to have “some pretty good days starting out for the year.” They are “getting in full swing of things” as conditions slowly improve.
Looking ahead, Paplow outlines their immediate plans: “We have to get out to Perrington, Texas, probably this weekend, and then up to Pratt, Kansas this weekend also.” He acknowledges they will be “a couple of days behind getting to those places” due to the weather. The aim is to get caught up over the next ten days to be caught up before moving to western Kansas.”
As part of US Custom Harvesters, Paplow also offers a broader perspective on the harvest across the country. “Down in Texas, the crop isn’t very good, and everyone knows that,” he states, but “as you go north, everything seems to be pretty good.” This suggests a more optimistic outlook for the later stages of the harvest season. He adds that his operation is in “a little bit better shape because we didn’t have much in Texas. Our stuff was zeroed out, so we’re not behind like everybody else is going to be that still had their normal acres down south.”
To successfully bring this year’s crop to fruition, Paplow’s needs are simple: “Some hot and dry weather, and hopefully the rain stays away this weekend.”
