Each summer, an army of intrepid youngsters pack their bags, fly to the US and spend the following eight months piloting combine harvesters, grain carts and trucks throughout the Midwestern arable heartland.

One of the outfits responsible for matching keen UK operators with a suitable “custom cutting” crew is Harvest Support USA-UK, run by Paul and Mary Hore.

They have connections with most of the main harvesting gangs and make life easy by helping to organise visas and travel.

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Budding operators don’t need to be able to drive a combine – bosses actually like “greenhorns” that they can train up – but some experience of working with farm machinery is usually expected.

As well as being a fantastic adventure, the work is paid and living expenses are covered – so operators can come back with money in the bank.

In the past, custom cutting has been heavily male dominated, but this season female drivers have been placed on crews for the first time.

To find out what it’s all about, we’ve been following the progress of four of Paul and Mary’s 2024 cohort.

Anna Frick and Katie Bailey – Paplow Harvesting and Trucking

Before graduating from Harper Adams University in September 2023, Anna and Katie went on a US harvesting adventure.

Both have agricultural backgrounds – Anna grew up on a Lincolnshire arable farm and Katie an arable farm in Northumberland – so they were already well versed in operating machinery.

The pair spent the season with Minnesota- based Paplow Harvesting and Trucking, led by Gary and Rhonada Paplow, along with son Paul and his wife, Christy.

The kit used by the firm this harvest included 10 brand-new Case IH Axial Flow 8250 combines with five new 45ft MacDon FD245 flex draper headers, Case Magnum 340 tractors, Brent Avalanche 1398 grain carts and Peterbilt 379 semi-trucks with Cat engines.

Other UK operators in the Paplow crew include Sam Sandow from Cornwall, Angus Germany from Norfolk, and Joe Fox from Belfast.

You can see more of Anna and Katie’s US travels on their Instagram pages:

• @anna_in_america_
• @bails__abroad

April

Worthington, Minnesota

We arrived in Worthington in late April and our first task was to get paperwork sorted – sim cards, bank accounts, driver’s licences and social security numbers.

We were soon put to work servicing trucks and equipment ready for the next few months on the road.

The first big challenge was learning how to drive the Peterbilt trucks and prepare for our CDL test – the US equivalent of an HGV licence.

It was a steep learning curve as they’ve got 18-speed manual transmissions and you have to “float” (shift) the gears by rev matching without using the clutch.

Once we’d completed the CDL theory test, which wasn’t too difficult, we went to Sioux City, Iowa, for the practical element, which, thankfully, we passed – as did Sam and Angus.

In total, we had five weeks at base before getting on the road. There was a lot to do, but we had a couple of days off to see bull riding in Sioux Falls, play Topgolf and visit Spirit Lake.

May

Wichita Falls, Texas

By mid-May, we were ready to make the long journey down to our harvest starting point in Wichita Falls, Texas.

It was more than 800 miles of driving, with 17 of us in convoy, and took two days to get there, factoring in an overnight stop at a parking lot in Lincoln, Kansas.

Our living accommodation for the whole harvest was one of six campers, towed by a Chevrolet 3500 High Country pickup.

It was well appointed, with four bunk beds, a living room and two bathrooms.

Cutting started on 18 May and the first day was chaos, with the whole team thrown in at the deep end.

But we all learned together and soon got to grips with driving the combines.

We were purely cutting wheat, most of which was grown in terraced fields to manage soil erosion.

Yields varied from 30-60 bushel (bu)/acre (2-4t/ha) and we only cut below 14.1% moisture.

As it was so hot, we would be cutting by lunchtime most days.

However, we did have a few rainy days where we could relax, go swimming or head to the shops in town.

June

Kiowa, Pratt and Colby, Kansas

After Texas, the crew split up into three different groups and we headed to Kiowa with boss Paul, Sam and Joe.

We were there for nine days and cut for eight of those. Kiowa was a lovely little town which had a great bakery where we went for doughnuts every morning.

The weather was also on our side, wheat was averaging about 40-50 bu/acre (2.7-3.4t/ha), and it was pretty clean which meant we could push on.

Most of the fields in this area are split into “sections”, which are a square mile with a road around the outside.

Farmers either own all or part of a section which is 640 acres (259ha), but most of the time we were cutting quarter sections, which are 160 acres (65ha).

After Kiowa, we drove the combines 50 miles to Pratt, which took us 2.5 hours. For most journeys, we towed the headers.

But for shorter moves we could sometimes just drive down the road with them on – in Tribune, for example, we never took our headers off as the roads were always wide enough.

Doing this was a bit hairy to start with as you have to get off the road when you meet other traffic and use the tilt function to get the header over mailboxes and through gateways.

Long, consecutive days of combining kept us busy, but we did get some time off to explore the area.

This included a trip to the dirt car races in Dodge City, where we met Emma and Adam who were working for Strnad crew. Kansas was incredibly flat, but we loved it.

The dusty sunsets were amazing and the people were so friendly.

July

Paxton, Nebraska

Things slowed down a lot when we got to Nebraska, as the heavens opened and we only managed to do six days of combining in two-and-a-half weeks.

The large amount of downtime was spent servicing all the gear in a farmer’s workshop ready for our next move into Montana.

On our final day in Nebraska we went floating down the North Platte River in tubes, kayaks and tubs – this was lots of fun and a great way to end our time there.

August

Fort Benton, Montana

Getting all the gear 900 miles to Fort Benton, Montana, involved four trips with a stay over in North Dakota.

The final move alone had 22 vehicles running in convoy.

We finished cutting winter wheat in the first week of August, and then we switched to lentils – some of which were black lentils that are sold to Japanese Restaurants in the US.

Lentils aren’t fun to harvest as we had to cut low to the ground and were constantly picking up rocks.

Sometimes, this tested our patience as they could block the header and snap knife sections. But we would all keep our spirits up by chatting to each other on group calls.

Rhonada and Christy (Gary and Paul’s wives) kept us well fed by cooking up a storm in their camper kitchen – they whipped up everything from cottage pie and chicken alfredo to mac and cheese, and chicken enchiladas.

Sam’s parents also came out to visit us, which was lovely. They rode in the combine with Anna, and in the truck with Sam, and treated us to a great roast dinner at their Airbnb, which was much appreciated.

We combined for 17 days in Montana before heading to Ray, North Dakota, with four combines, a grain cart, two campers and a service truck.

September

Ray, North Dakota

We were in Ray for just over a month – the longest we had been anywhere – with 30 days of combining lentils, durum wheat, spring wheat and canola.

Then we moved equipment back to base in Worthington, Minnesota, and swapped five of the combines with the highest hour counts for new models, one of which Anna got to drive.

In among this, we were able to spend three days at “home” and visit the Clay County Fair, where we watched tractor pulling and rode on fairground rides with Paul’s daughter, Zoey.

Fall (autumn) harvest kicked off on 20 September and it was a steady start as we waited for the soya beans to ripen.

October

Worthington, Minnesota; Hartley, Iowa; and Elkton, South Dakota

Our combine driving came to an end in Minnesota after we had each spent a couple of weeks cutting soya beans and harvesting corn (maize) with a 16-row header.

We then moved into trucks – Anna in “number 67” and Kate in “number 9”,  which Sam had been driving all summer.

Elsewhere, Sam was in Roscoe, South Dakota, combining soya beans.

Paul picked corn in Hartley, South Dakota, and we hauled it into the local elevators.

Angus also trucked with us, having driven truck “number 5” all season, and was very helpful with fixing any problems we had.

Meanwhile, Joe did a great job of running a grain cart all season.

Despite his non-farming background, he proved that you are capable of doing anything you put your mind to.

Then, as things tend to do round here, the plan changed and we both ended up moving to Elkton, South Dakota.

A grain cart driver left, so Katie stepped up to the role and Sam got his truck back, which he was very pleased about. Anna remained in truck 67 for the rest of the season.

November

Finishing up and heading home

We were in Elkton for 20 days before we moved “home” for the final time on 2 November.

The last day of combining was hectic as the farmer’s bin was full and the elevator was closed.

But we kept going by filling almost every truck the Paplows owned to the brim.

It then took two days to shift everything back to base and we started washing down kit, ready to be put away for the winter.

As a farewell treat, Paul organised a tour at the Case IH combine factory in Grand Island, Nebraska, which was fascinating.

In the evening, we managed to get last-minute tickets to see country singer Lainey Wilson perform, which was pretty cool.

A relaxed few days followed before we had to say our goodbyes. This was tough, particularly when it came to Zoey, who had become a little sister to us.

On 13 November we left for good. Rhonada took us to our rental car, as we’re spending the next seven weeks travelling in the US, which is very exciting.

The whole experience has been incredible and it’s hard to put into words how amazing a custom harvest really is.

Being part of a crew, who have collectively cut 120,000 acres (48,500ha) this season, is something you can only dream about, and we are fortunate enough to have made this a reality.

Combining across eight states has been unforgettable, the scenery has been stunning and we’ve worked with some fantastic people.

There have been some challenges along the way.

As the only girls on the crew, working alongside 20 guys, it can be intense and you need a thick skin to put up with some of the jokes and pranks they enjoy playing.

We have been lucky to get along with our crew, but we imagine if this wasn’t the case, it could be a bit of a rough ride.

We would recommend any girls heading out there, go with a friend.

Another challenge is we are a lot smaller than the guys. This often meant we had to find different ways of doing some tasks – but with a positive mindset you can always find a way round and get the job done.

We are incredibly grateful to have been able to have this experience and it has been a dream come true.

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Emma Vincent and Adam Smaridge – Strnad Farms Inc

A year after graduating with agricultural diplomas from their respective colleges, Duchy and Bicton, Emma Vincent and Adam Smaridge went on the hunt for a new challenge.

Both were working on their family farms in Devon – Emma on a beef and arable enterprise and Adam on sheep and arable – when they came up with the idea of joining the US custom harvest.

They were placed with Kansas-based Strnad Farms Inc run by Joe Strnad. His fleet included four John Deere S780 combines with 45ft draper headers and 42ft stripper headers, three John Deere 8R 370 tractors running Kinze and Elmer grain carts, and a fleet of Peterbilt trucks.

April

Scandia, Kansas

When we got to the Strnad’s farm in Scandia late in the month we settled in and got straight onto harvest prep.

As he does every season, Joe had four brand-new John Deere S780 combines, but there was plenty of work getting the rest of the gear ready, such as changing sickles (knife sections) on the 45ft flex draper headers.

We had to learn how to drive the Peterbilt semis and get ready to take our CDL test.

As the work is too rough for new trucks, these are all 1990s models that have each done millions of miles.

We had fun learning how to “float” the 13 gears without using the clutch and get ready for the test.

This required a full pre-trip inspection, a 20-minute drive, and manoeuvres such as a straight-line reverse, offset reverse and parallel park.

Trying to slot a 60ft truck into a space doesn’t half test your driving skills.

May

Electra, Texas

There was a lot of work to do at the home farm in May, so we stayed there for most of the month.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew headed south before us to make a start.

The hay and alfalfa harvests were our main focus and we were tasked with driving John Deere 6155R and 6R 155 tractors with 560 round balers.

We both passed our CDL tests on 23 May and headed for the harvest start point in Texas shortly after.

Our accommodation on the road was a mobile bunkhouse with two bathrooms and a big kitchen, which was pretty comfortable.

It was super wet when we got there, with rain and thunderstorms causing havoc.

Progress was slow and vehicles were getting stuck, but we all pulled together as a team to get the job done.

Our main task was to haul the wheat for roughly an hour to the nearest elevator. It was pretty nerve-racking turning up with our first loads, but we soon got into the swing of it.

June

Enid, Oklahoma

Our time in Texas was relatively short and we soon moved north to Enid in Oklahoma.

We were still harvesting wheat and Adam continued to drive the truck, while Emma moved to the 8R 370 pulling the grain cart.

This was set up with Machine Sync so that the combine drivers could take control of the tractor for more accurate filling.

Rain stopped us cutting for a few days, but we made the most of the time off by heading into town to do some shopping and go bowling.

We also had a great barbecue and Joe got us massive steaks, which were so tasty.

The meat is incredible, but a lot of the food is more processed and we’re not big fans of the milk.

Due to the weather putting us so far behind, Joe sent one of the guys back to HQ to pick up the fourth combine.

Emma: “I was super excited as he said I was the one who’d get to drive it. Joe just showed me the buttons and let me get on with it, which was a great way to learn.

The next day we moved to a huge field and I got a bit emotional because I have dreamed of doing this for so long.

I couldn’t believe I was finally in America cutting wheat with a 45ft header watching the sun go down. No feeling quite like it.”

We then moved to a different customer and our first field was a whole “section”. On the first headland run the combine cut 84 acres (40ha).

July

Pratt, Kansas

We were in Oklahoma for roughly two weeks before heading north to Pratt, Kansas, where we switched to running stripper headers.

They use these where the wheat is short or it is beneficial to keep the organic matter.

The stripper headers are cool as we cut a lot faster, at around 6-7mph, but they’re disconcerting to use as you can’t see the crop going in.

On 13 June a storm came in hot and heavy, with strong winds and rain. But it only stopped play that evening and we were back cutting the following afternoon.

We then moved into irrigated wheat, which was a big difference. From cutting 40 to 50 bu/acre (2.7-3.4t/ha) on dry ground we were straight up to 90 bu/acre (6t/ha).

There was also time for a visit to Dodge City raceway with the crew. It was amazing – it’s always nice to have some time off and we bumped into Katie and Anna from the Paplow Harvesting and Trucking crew.

July 

Tribune, Kansas

After we finished in Pratt, we loaded up and moved to Tribune – which was awesome.

The fields were level and big, and the best part were the open roads so we didn’t have to take the headers off to move. This really sped the job up. 

The boss’s son joined the crew and ran Emma’s combine, leaving her to drive the second Kinze grain cart, which holds 60,000lb (27.2t). Our South African girl, Lianne, ran the other one.

Harvest is very different compared to home – irrigated wheat is a similar height, but unirrigated is far shorter and lower yielding.

We were also amazed that all the straw is chopped.

On 2 July we spent the morning blowing off all the kit and doing some servicing before driving four hours “home” to spend a few days back at HQ for 4 July.

This was fun as we had never experienced a “fourth” celebration and it was nice to all be together again and have a little break. We drank and ate way too much.

After this, we moved up to South Dakota with a stop at a posh hotel in Nebraska.

We set off at first light, got to Philip that evening and unloaded, before heading for a beer.

That was a common theme on the trip – work hard but relax with a drink at the end of it.

Wet weather set in around the middle of the month, so we loaded up the van and the whole crew headed to Mount Rushmore, stopping at a town called Wall on the way home to see a rodeo.

It brightened up shortly after and we hammered on, cutting wheat until the 20th of the month – that was a good run.

August

Regent, North Dakota

On 2 August we made another move to Regent, North Dakota – with Emma back in the combine with the draper header cutting wheat and Adam running the 8R and grain cart.

The climate and landscapes were completely different in the region and much more like home.

Some ground was flat, some was sloping and the yields were good, despite all the wheat being spring planted.

By the middle of the month, we had our first taste of a different crop as the canola (oilseed rape) harvest kicked off.

It was a busy month and, at times, if felt like we were a long way from home, but we stuck at it.

A cook normally goes on the road with the crew, but there wasn’t one available this season. It meant we had to make our own lunches and Joe would get us evening meals from local places.

Sometimes this was good and sometimes it wasn’t, but we were certainly pleased when we got the opportunity to cook for ourselves.

September

Scandia, Kansas

Fall harvest began with cutting wet corn (maize) at the home farm on 2 September.

They combine rather than chop it, to reduce the amount of feed the cattle eat and, consequently, the amount of dung in the feedlot pens.

This crop was irrigated and reached about 200 bu/acre (12.5t/ha), with target moisture of between 20% and 35%.

With four S780 John Deere combines, three 8R 370 tractors running carts, and 12 semi-trucks hauling the crop, it sure was a whole team effort to get it done.

We were all running together until 11 September, after which some of us moved down to Pratt to cut milo (sorghum) and dry corn, where we stayed for the rest of the month.

When we finished, Emma drove the tractor and grain cart for a full seven hours and 210 miles up to Tribune.

October

Tribune, Kansas

The corn harvest started in Tribune on 2 October, with Adam getting to drive a combine for the first time in the season and Emma running a grain cart.

Adam: I was at the wheel almost every day that month and cut just shy of 3,000 acres [1,215ha].

To finish October, we spent two days harvesting the last of the milo in Tribune.

As this was all unirrigated dry land, the yields were low and we could cover the ground quickly.

The worst corn yields were about 30 bu/acre (1.8t/ha) and the best were 140 bu/acre (8.8t/ha), so there was a huge variation.

However, by the end of the season the average was above the 65 bu/acre (4t/ha) target, at 75 bu/acre (4.7t/ha).

The milo produced roughly the same, with the worst being 40 bu/acre (2.5t/ha) and the best reaching 130 bu/acre (8t/ha).

November

Finishing up and heading home

Harvest drew to a close on 15 November cutting milo in Pratt, Kansas, and we headed back to the home farm to pack everything up.

By this point, Adam had done roughly 6,500 miles of truck driving and the combines we’d driven had cut about 7,500acres (3,035ha) each.

The experience was incredible and it was a fantastic way to see the country. We gained new skills, met great people and learned to work as a team. There were also some tough times.

Two or three months in is the breaking point – you’re away from home and friends, working long hours and getting to grips with a different culture. But if you can get through this, the rest just flies by.

You’ve also got to understand that Americans are more direct than we are. They don’t really bother with pleases and thank yous, which sounded a bit rude to our English ears to start with. But they’re actually very friendly and welcoming.

Emma: The crews are very male dominated and the guys tend to wade in first when jobs needed doing.

I just had to push myself to get involved, because I knew I could do it too. Hopefully, Katie, Anna and I will inspire more girls to join crews in the future.”