Olsen Custom Farms, the largest custom harvesting contractor in the United States with a fleet of 80 combines, begins each season the same way thousands of other crews have for generations. They start cutting wheat in Texas in late May and finish in Canada by October, following a 2,000-mile corridor of ripening grain that defines the actual productive prairie.
This annual migration, documented since at least 1976 when the BBC filmed Dale Starks for their documentary “Yellow Trail from Texas,” continues today with crews registered through the U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc. (USCHI), the association founded in 1983 to represent this essential but largely invisible workforce.
The economics dictate everything. A new John Deere S790 combine costs between $599,900 and $739,900 according to 2024 dealer listings, with flagship models like the John Deere X9 1100 reaching $950,000.
Case IH’s Axial-Flow 260 series and CLAAS LEXION models fall into similar price ranges. These machines harvest at rates approaching 7,200 bushels per hour according to manufacturer specifications, guided by GPS systems and yield monitors that didn’t exist when many of these family operations began. Custom harvesters charge between $35 and $45 per acre according to industry reports, a rate that must cover fuel, maintenance, labor, transportation, and the massive capital investment in equipment.
Monthly rental rates for a single combine run $20,000 to $30,000, making custom harvesting economically essential for farmers who can’t justify owning machinery that operates only a few weeks per year.
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