Bismarck Tribune

By LAUREN DONOVBy LAUREN DONOVAN

HAZEN - Jason Wagner says he knows three custom combiners who died of heart attacks this year.

It just might have been their time. Or it might have been stress.

"They're dying off before they even get to Kansas," Wagner said.

He laughs, brown eyes in deeply tanned brown face. It's a gallows laugh.

It's tough out there, from Oklahoma to North Dakota, dry the whole way north.

His doctor put him on blood pressure pills this spring.

Wagner, his dad, Darrell, and his brother, Allen, of Mankato, Kan., bring Wagner's Harvesting equipment up the Great Plains every summer.

They've never landed in Hazen - their north turn-around destination - so early. Things are ripening fast and work is scarce.

It was dry everywhere they went and getting drier by the minute.

Some guys zeroed out their wheat crops. They cut one South Dakota farmer's crop in three days when normally, they get two weeks of work there.

Some of Wagners' equipment is in Hazen, where conditions right now are on the verge. With Wednesday's shot of rain, wheat and grains could fill in pretty good. With continued heat and wind, it could be a meltdown.

Everyone's on edge and who can blame them?

It's hot and dry and at the same time wheat is nearing a phenomenal $5 a bushel, scraping enough off the fields to make a decent load is an iffy proposition.

As in most years, it's the early-planted crops that have the best chance.

Darrell Wagner said in all his years - he's 55 and been at this custom cutting since he was a teen - he's never seen it so dry.

"It's the worst I've ever seen it, dry from Oklahoma to North Dakota, clear into Canada. It's the worst I've seen in such a big area," he said.

Wagners leave home in May to cut winter wheat further south and gradually follow the harvest north.

They have a fleet of harvesting equipment rolling down the highway - four semi trucks, five combines, three mobile homes and two tractors with grain carts.

One combine alone costs $300,000. They make hefty payments to the bank and talks with their banker this year will be, well, interesting.

"It's just like going to Las Vegas," Jason Wagner said. "We're really gambling."

They're asking about $20 an acre to harvest, more to haul.

Rising fuel costs are another no gainer in trying to make the custom combining formula pay off.

Darrell Wagner said he tries to convince farmers to combine even marginal yield wheat fields. With wheat prices up, there's a chance to break even, plus getting standing grain off the field will reduce plant trash and sprout management come spring.

The Wagners said this is the kind of year that makes them debate the wisdom of their traveling lifestyle.

Darrell Wagner said his banker says it's time to sell the combines.

He doesn't know about that.

"We take the good with the bad," he said.

That's what farmers do, too, if they can just hang on.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)