agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, custom harvesting or custom combining is the business of

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...

ing of

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

s for others. Custom harvesters usually own their own combines and work for the same

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

s every harvest season. Custom harvesting relieves

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

s from having to invest

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

in expensive equipment while at the same time maximizing the machinery's use. The custom harvesting industry has its roots in the mid-twentieth century. Before the invention of the combine harvester,

s usually owned their own harvesting machinery and worked in tandem with

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant worker ...

s, who would bring their own

threshing Threshing, or thrashing, is the process of loosening the edible part of grain (or other crop) from the straw to which it is attached. It is the step in grain preparation after reaping. Threshing does not remove the bran from the grain. History ...

equipment. As combines became more and more widespread, the demand for migrant labor decreased. Custom harvesters, owning their own combines, existed beginning in the 1920s, albeit on a small scale. However,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

caused a labor and materials shortage, and the custom harvesting industry experienced a great growth. In

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, the area from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

was heavily traversed by custom harvesters. In 1942, there were approximately 500 such operators in this range, but by 1947 that number had grown to 8,000 in

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

alone. Over the years, the industry transformed from one being run solely by men into family-run businesses. Harvesters would pass their routes and clients down to their children, thus turning custom combining into family tradition. Custom combiners charge for their services in several ways: a flat per-unit of land price, a per-bale price, or a percentage of the crop. One of the biggest problems for farmers who hire custom harvesters is the availability of labor and the timing of the harvest. If the harvester cannot be available right when the crops are ready, there is the risk of low harvest (if too early) or spoilage (if too late). The number of custom harvesters has dropped in modern times due to a number of reasons. For one, the consolidation of farms into large-scale operations has allowed them to operate on

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...

such that they do not need to rely on contractors.

Competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

is another reason. In

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, custom harvesting became such a popular profession in the late 20th century that too many people entered the industry and prices became too low to generate a profit.

References

{{reflist Agricultural labor

See also

References