User:Cgoodeng

My name is Camille Good. I attended high school in Fort Benton, Montana and college in Bozeman, Montana. After receiving both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering, I lived in the Portland, Oregon area for nine years. During that time, my primary job duties were in the field of regulatory engineering. I recently moved back to Chouteau County, Montana to spend time with my family.

Article under creation:

Custom cutters are nomadic harvesting crews. A custom cutting crew will typically including multiple combines (also called combine harvesters), sometimes  trucks to transport the harvested crop, and operators to run the machinery. They will harvest crops for multiple farms and be paid based on the size of crop harvested.

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Customers
Test of footnoting --

Harvest

Articles about harvest

Associated Press, "Harvest prices expected to be high because of fuel costs", May 31, 2008; retrieved November 9, 2008

Barron, Robert, "British brothers discover custom fit summer vacation", The Enid News and Eagle (Enid, Oklahoma), June 18, 2008; retrieved November 9, 2008

Corn, Mike, "Despair about wheat crop evident", Hays Daily News (Hays, Kansas), June 26, 2002; retrieved November 9, 2008

Crockett, Tracy, "Program That Connects Custom Cutters With Farmers Ending", KWCH Channel 12 Eyewitness News (Wichita, Kansas), June 15, 2007; retrieved on November 9, 2008

Hegeman, Roxana, "Drought discourages custom cutters", Topeka Capital Journal (Topeka, Kansas), July 13, 2002; retrieved on November 9, 2008

Unruh, Tim, "Wheat Harvester Scales Back", Salina Journal (Salina, Kansas) via redOrbit, article dated both May 25, 2006 and June 1, 2006; retrieved on November 9, 2008

Notes from Associated Press article:
 * custom cutter profiled in article had already been harvest three weeks in Arizona and California; article dated May 31
 * prices based on fuel used, acres cut, and yields
 * custom cutters affected by fuel prices
 * weather affects timing of harvest for custom cutters
 * U.S. Custom Harvester association says in last 10 years number of custom cutters has halved
 * U.S. Custom Harvester also says even though number of customs cutters has halved, more efficient machines have helped make up the difference

Notes from Barron article:
 * in the 1970s, the BBC followed a custom cutter crew from Oklahoma to Canada. this was used to make a documentary film titled "Yellow Trail to Texas" which was quite popular in England
 * in 2007, two brothers from England came to the U.S. and found the custom cutter who was in the film
 * while the custom cutter in the film died between 2007 and 2008, the brothers found another farmer in Enid, OK who runs a custom cutter operation and who was willing to take them on as crew for part of the summer
 * although the article does not explicitly state it, it sounds like custom cutters are not used in England

Notes from Corn article:
 * some area farmers in Kansas had crops so bad that they were choosing to

Notes from Crockett article:
 * As of June 2007, the Kansas Department of Commerce was ending a program that connected custom cutters with farmers.
 * The program had been in existence for over 40 years
 * The program was ending due to lack of use. In turn, it was largely unused because too many people did not know of it. The Department of Commerce said they had forgotten to tell the Kansas Wheat Commission
 * Because of the program's ending, custom cutters would have to rely more on their own networking efforts to find customers
 * Cell phones help custom cutters stay in touch with client farmers
 * One person quoted in the article had "300 crews in 29 states" (???)

Notes from Hegeman article:
 * combines cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and are only used a few weeks a year.
 * custom cutters buy multiple combines and harvest crops for farmers
 * a crew profiled in the article had both combines and trucks
 * as of 2002, there was no farm bill aid or insurance programs available for custom cutters
 * as of 2002, there were an estimated 500 custom cutters in the U.S. (article does not specify is this is 500 custom cutter crew owners, operators,or number of combines)
 * as of 2002, it was common for custom cutter crew owners to hire seasonal help from Australia and South Africa. These seasonal helpers usually came from farms themselves
 * custom cutters are affected by weather conditions that also affect farmers, such as drought
 * for one crew profiled in the article, a typical year starts in Texas in May harvesting winter wheat. by december they will have traveled through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, and North Dakota. As of 2002, an average year for them would have been 35,000 acres, but because of 2002 drought problems they harvested 6,000 acres less
 * crew owner profiled in article owns his own farm
 * as of 2002, there was an effort by custom cutters to include provisions for them in farm bills, disaster aid, or catastrophic crop insurance
 * as of 2002, the Kansas Department of Human Resources provided a service to match cutters with farmers
 * as of 2002, the Kansas Department of Human Resources noted that many farmers were not hiring custom cutting crews that traveled the country, but were instead hiring neighboring farmers who owned combines.

Notes from Unruh article:
 * Custom cutter profiled in article has been in business over 40 years
 * Custom cutter in article would normally be in Texas by May and go all the way to Canadian border during the year
 * as of 2006, there was a shortage of crews in south Texas
 * custom cutter profiled is a farmer himself
 * custom cutter profile in article based his prices on acres cut, bushes per acre over a certain threshold, and miles his trucks traveled to elevator
 * he was affected by diesel prices and wheat prices
 * some farmers in Kansas he had cut for for years and they are "like family"