Watch: The 2,000-mile American harvest

Each year combine crews make the epic trip from the Mexican border all the way up to the Canadian border cutting mostly wheat along the way. One such crew which does this every year is Demaray Harvesting, based in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Demaray Harvesting was started in 1974 by Warren Demaray who at the time was a small farmer in North Dakota, with 40 cows. Warren started off with one John Deere 7700 combine with a 22ft header. His son Tim joined the company in 1976 having previously worked in Texas Instruments as a manufacturing engineer. Speaking about his decision to join forces with his father, Tim said: "I always wanted to be my own boss and run my own business." Tim joined the company and purchased his father's John Deere combine that first season while Warren invested in two new combines. Little did either Warren or Tim know at the time that this was to be the start of one of the biggest combine crews in America.

They ran the three 7700 combines for one year after which they upgraded to two new 7720 John Deere combines which they ran for five years before trading for five new 7720 models. Warren retired in 1985 and in 1989 Kevin Wansing joined the company as a crew chief and is still with the company today as a business partner. From 1990 onwards, they added a new combine each year up until 1998 when they upgraded from eight to 10 combines.

John Deere was always the brand of choice for Demaray until 2012, when they made the decision to change colours from green to red when they purchased Case. Kevin tells us "we made the decision to change from John Deere after a tough 2012 season which saw a lot of problems with the combines. We talked to Case, went to see the machines and did a deal; since then we have never looked back."

Machinery

Today Demaray has an extremely impressive machinery lineup:

Each season Demaray purchases 11 new Case 8240 Axial Flow combines. This is done for numerous reasons, the main one being reliability, as each combine with a price tag of over half a million comes with a 12-month warranty, which when you are cutting as much corn as these guys are is vital. The combines leave the yard in Arizona never to return - eight months later, when the harvest is finished at the border with Canada, they are traded in and a deal is done for 11 new machines for the next season. One-year-old combines will have on average 900 drum hours after the season and still command a high trade-in value, so this system works very well for Demaray.

Moving on to tractors, the company normally keep them for two seasons as well as the grain chasers, this is because they don't do as much hard work as the combines and are not as critical to the operation. They run two massive articulated 400HP Case Steigher tractors which pull equally impressive 1300 Kinze grain chasers with capacities of over 40t each. They also have two slightly smaller Case Magnum 315 tractors which use their 315HP to pull 1100 Kinze grain chasers which have capacities of 30t. The jobs of these machines are as the name suggests, chase the combines, collect the grain from them and bring it to the awaiting trucks on the headlands. All the grain is weighed and recorded on the grain chaser so the customer knows their exact yields.

The 20 trucks and trailers are the lifeline to the crew as they not only ferry the grain to its destination, but also help haul the machinery from state to state. Demaray keep the trucks for numerous years normally.

Mechanic Craig Thickett keeps the show on the road and makes sure all is running 100%. Craig is originally from New Zealand. He came to experience the combine crew 10 years ago and simply never went home. Over the course of the season the trucks and trailers will get through on average 150 tyres and burn road diesel at a rate of a gallon every five miles at a cost of between $2.10 and $2.60 per gallon.

To help Craig keep the machines running, this year Demaray has assembled a parts trailer. This is essentially a 40ft travelling workshop constructed inside a refrigerated trailer. Inside this trailer Demaray has invested in over $60,000 worth of parts to have in the event of a breakdown when they are on their 2,000-mile journey. Furthermore, Case also offers a season-long backup service to its customers called Pro Harvest Support. This consists of a fully stocked truck and trailer along with a fleet of service trucks and technicians who travel from south to north along with the combine crews, on call 24/7 in the event of a breakdown.

The Journey

Demaray Harvesting’s annual journey takes in seven states: Arizona, California, Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota Montana and North Dakota.

Each season which starts around May and finishes anything up to eight months later will see the combines go from the bottom of America to the top. Demaray will harvest a field which borders Mexico and also harvest a field up north that borders Canada. Each season the staff and machines will cover over 2,000 miles and harvest between 100,000 and 120,000 acres for on average 88 customers. The machines have to cope with various climates along the way, with highs of over 40°C in Arizona and lows of -27°C in North Dakota.

The crops mature and ripen at a rate of 15-20 miles north each day so if the crew spend two days on a job they will have to jump 30-40 miles for the next work and this continues throughout the season. Yields will average about 3.5t/acre at a moisture content of just 7.5% straight off the combine. The Demaray crew will harvest enough wheat in one day to produce over 4m loafs of bread.

Electronic system takes hassle out of billing

All machines are fitted with an iPad on which each operator inputs various information daily. This is then sent electronically to Tim's brother Bill, who uses the information to bill the customers and pay the employees their wages.

Interestingly all the combine crews do not offer credit to their customers like we do here in Ireland.

The farmer writes out a cheque once the job is completed and similarly Demaray does not receive credit from their diesel or parts suppliers. They charge $50/acre in Arizona, which changes in different states to between $25-$35 an acre.

Huge cost of fuelling the fleet

Keeping the crew moving mechanically is one thing, but financially is another when you take into consideration the numbers. Each season Demaray will burn over 250,000 gallons of agri diesel in the tractors and combines alone at a cost of on average of $1.10 to $1.70 per gallon. And that doesn't even include the trucks, which run on road diesel and burn it at a rate of a gallon every five miles when loaded and a gallon every eight miles when empty. Every second day they receive a diesel delivery of 7,000 gallons in order to keep the wheels turning.

Maintenance and running costs for such a large operation are also a major factor financially, with the trucks and various trailers eating their way through more than 150 tyres in the season. On top of all this, 38 staff have to be paid, fed and accommodated, which is no easy task and wouldn't be possible without the crew chiefs and long-serving staff, which Tim relies heavily on.

Speaking to Tim about the biggest challenges he faces each year I was surprised to find it wasn't money but labour: "Good help is very hard to find each season. We take in guys from all over the world such as New Zealand, UK, India, South Africa - but the Irish seem to work the best for us." Asking why the Irish, Tim replies: "They all come from agricultural backgrounds and although they party hard they also work hard, are willing to learn and most importantly work well as part of a team."

Going on to ask what gives Tim the most satisfaction about the job, he smiles and says: "Shaking the farmer's hand at the end of the job knowing it's done right and that there is money made for the farmer and combine crew alike."