This is Part 1 of a three-part series on Damron wheat harvest.

Fenceline to fenceline, the 2024 wheat crop in Delhi, Okla., is the best Damron Farms has ever harvested.

“We’ve harvested a touch over 3,300 acres, and we haven’t cut in a bad wheat field yet,” Jake Damron said.

“Our wheat following cotton is around 30 bushels and then on our strictly wheat fields, we've had a lot of 40s, 50s and 60s.” The irrigated wheat yielded about 80 to 85 bushels per acre.

Jake Damron visits on the phone while he and the harvest crew wait for the humidity to lower. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

Jake, who farms with his father Jack Damron, credits timely rains and weed management as keys to this year’s success. “We take a lot of pride in keeping our wheat clean. We spent more money than we ever have on chemicals this year. We don’t have any weeds in our wheat fields. It’s just been easy cutting all year.”

Wheat height and test weights also have been good. Winter moisture and April showers proved to be game-changers. “We got really dry in the middle of April and some of our wheat started to burn up. Then we got 1.8 inches and that made our whole wheat crop.”

A few May rains helped fill the heads and finish the crop. “That really made the big difference,” Jake added.

Clean wheat fields

The Damrons conventionally farm their wheat ground, so “we don’t hardly have any problems with bugs,” Jake said. “We sprayed every acre for stripe rust. We also go over our wheat three times.”

In February, he top dresses fertilizer and then comes back with weed killer and applies a pre-emerge. “Then we'll come back a couple weeks after that, and spray fungicide on every acre, so we always have a clean wheat field.”

They also raise seed wheat, so keeping those fields clean is a priority there as well.

Before they treat, the Damrons first consider their rotation. “Some of our fields that we know we’re going to put back to cotton next year, we’ve got to run different chemical that only lasts up until June, first of July. If we are going back to wheat, we run Finesse. That gives us 18 months where we can go back to cotton and gives us longer periods through the summer without weeds.”

Jake and his father Jack Damron, Delhi, Okla. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

In the past, where the wheat wasn’t as good, Jake said they’ve cut corners on weed applications to save money. “Last year, we had some thinner wheat where we didn’t spray pre-merge. It started raining and the weeds took off, so now we know we’re going to go over it all three times.

“And another thing, a lot of people will put their weed killer and their fertilizer down at the same time, but you have to spray it. We stream our fertilizer and then spray and then we don’t burn any of our wheat.”

Between Jake and Jack, about 10% of their acres are irrigated with five pivots. “We’re very short on water," Jake said. "We can only use 1.5 pivots for summer crops; the rest are for winter wheat."

Wheat variety

The Damrons primarily sow Jagger wheat seed. “It’s an old variety. We've been planting it for a long time,” Jake said. “About 10 years ago, my dad went to Kansas State and bought the last variety of foundation wheat seed that they made from Jagger.

“So, we’ve kept that in our rotation and now we’ve got all foundation seed.”

They also raise Gallagher. “On this field here, half of it was Gallagher. Half of it's Jagger. And my sister [Sara Nicholson, the lead combine driver] split it yesterday on the yield monitor and the Jagger was making better.”

The Damrons primarily plant Jagger wheat. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

The Damrons have tried a lot of varieties over the years, but they always come back to Jagger. Last year, for the first time, they tried Double Stop, a wheat variety that allows them to spray over the top for rye.

“The irrigated wheat behind cotton made 60 bushels, which is great because we planted it around Thanksgiving,” Jake said, adding that they’ll plant it again this year.

Wheat harvest

The Damrons run Gleaner combines, a brand Jack has used since the 70s when he began his custom wheat harvest business at the age of 19. Up until last year, they did not have GPS on their machines.

Jake, who’s been driving the combine full-time since he was 11 years old, has always manually steered the combine. But in 2023, while taking a break from planting cotton, he got his first taste of GPS on Sara’s combine, their newest machine, a MacDon D65-D Draper.

“Last year, I got on Sara’s combine one time, and thought, ‘I’m done,’” and swore he’d never drive a combine without it again. “You can get more productivity because you’re always taking a full header,” he said.

This year, Jake transferred the GPS equipment from his tractor and installed it on their older Gleaner. “The only thing I had to buy is this John Deere steering wheel. I ran a wiring harness on it so when we get done with cotton or wheat harvest, I cake take my screen out and leave the wiring harness and the steering wheel. I’m getting multi-use out of all this.”

Jake Damron said the wheat this year has been consistent and phenomenal, fenceline to fenceline. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)

GPS has also been advantageous on their terraced ground near Erick. “It works really good with the contour, too. You can just cut down one side and then it’ll follow back. You can pay attention to so much more.”

It also makes dumping on the run easier. “We used to not have a grain cart, so we dumped right onto the trucks while we were going through the field. It’s so much easier to dump on the run with auto steer.”

As the Damrons wrapped up harvest, Jake said they are thankful for this year’s high yields. “Last year, we had one field do 50 bushels, a lot of 20s and some 10s. It just wasn’t a very good crop. This year, it’s been very consistent,” Jake said. “It’s phenomenal -- fenceline to fenceline.”

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