Profile:
Carl and Karen Figgins own and operate C & K Figgins Custom Harvesting, based out of Mankato, Kansas.  They have three 9650 STS John Deere combines with supporting trucks to haul harvested grain to grain elevators or on-farm storage.  They have mobile trailer houses to cook in and to provide living quarters for the hired help.  The Figgins harvest crew leaves from the Figgins’ home in Kansas and travels to Texas to start the summer’s harvest run.  In preparation for this, they have done maintenance work to the trucks, combine trailers, trailer houses and all the other equipment they take with them on the harvest run.  They have trained the hired help to drive the trucks and combines and obtained the proper driver’s licenses to assure they can legally operate the equipment.

The Figgins Harvesting crew is usually on the road for six months.  Their wheat harvest run starts in Texas in May and progresses northward through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and on to Montana in August.  Then, in September, the harvest crew will travel back south to the southwest Kansas, southeast Colorado area to harvest corn and milo.  It is usually mid-November before the Figgins return to their Mankato, Kansas home. 

Karen Figgins has been a member of the Jewell County Chapter of Kansas Women Involved in Farm Economics since the early 1980’s.  Here she shares her diary of the last days of preparation for the 2001 wheat harvest and the first few days of the 2001 wheat harvest run. 

2001 Wheat Harvest Run Diary - Text and Photos
May 1-16: Mankato, Kansas - Getting Ready
May 17-24: Throckmorton, Texas
May 25-31: Finishing Up in Texas
June 1-2: Hobart, Oklahoma

Follow the 2001 Wheat Harvest Run through photos:
Johnson, Kansas
Anton, Colorado
Cutting Canola in Montana

Diary - Text Only

Photo Album - Photos Only