Planting, harvesting a harmonious operation for locals
Harmony Harvesting is one of the local companies that plants and harvests acres of crops for local dairy farmers. Based in Kidron, it is co-owned by Phil Neuenschwander and Wendell Horst.
Wayne County is known for its agriculture. Fields organize the landscape, providing stunning views. The milk on morning cereal comes from cows that get fed the crops that grow. Even the front of Dalton’s K-8 school is a design of rowed, natural colored hues inspired by local fields and how they look from an aerial view.
As the weather is nice and fields need worked, more farm equipment will be on the roads.
Harmony Harvesting is one of the local companies that plants and harvests acres of crops for local dairy farmers. Based in Kidron, it is co-owned by Phil Neuenschwander and Wendell Horst.
“It’s a big investment for the chopper and all the support equipment — tractors, trailers, packer tractor,” said Neuenschwander of the operation.
Harmony Harvesting owns the equipment and rents itself out so farmers don’t have to own all those big ticket items on their own.
Last fall, they planted rye in many fields that is now coming up and will need cut the first week of May. Corn and hay, which could include alfalfa, grass, or wheat, will get planted and cut or chopped as they’re ready.
Harmony Harvesting’s self-propelled John Deere forage harvester, commonly known as a chopper, will cut the crops into less than half-inch pieces, small enough for cows to chew and also for it to ferment correctly.
As it chops, the corn or hay will get projected into a wagon driven by a one of their seven tractors. The drivers have to carefully keep at the same speed as the chopper so the cuttings go into the trailer.
Once the wagon is full, an empty wagon will replace it and the full wagon will go to the farm and dump the load in a holding ground. There, their packer tractor will drive over it to compact it and get the air out of it so it can ferment. Eventually, the crop gets stored by the farmers either in a silo or in white plastic tubing until it’s ready to be used for feed.
“We chopped for the neighbors as long as I can remember,” said Neuenschwander, who grew up on farm in Kidron, now called Harmony Farms. He and his brother got their own chopper in 1983 and upgraded to a self-propelled chopper in 2000. In 2002, Horst started working with them, and he went full-time with them in 2006.
When Neuenschwander’s brother moved to Indiana in 2008, Phil ran the business on his own for a few years until 2014 when together with Horst, Harmony Harvesting was formed.
Lloyd Miller and his brother Galen both drive for Harmony Harvesting.
“I grew up on a farm in Iowa,” Lloyd said. “We had small tractors and to see a big John Deere tractor going down the road was a big thing. I just always enjoyed being on a tractor.
“For me, it’s the satisfaction of doing the job and doing it well, and looking back and saying, ‘Man, that’s pretty neat,’ to see a nice clean field harvested,” he added. “It’s not boring. I’ll guarantee you that.”
“We have a lot of fun,” added driver Troy Shaum. “Farming isn’t a get rich quick deal, so it’s not like you’re making tons of money, but you’re having fun and helping people out.”
Harmony Harvesting does field work for farms scattered around the area, from the county line road to Apple Creek. It also services farms as far away as Canal Fulton.
“It looks like it’s easy work, but it’s a mental stress, especially on the roads—you’ve got to pay attention to what the cars and vehicles around you are doing,” said Lloyd Miller.
Neuenschwander said moving farm equipment not seen often on the road can be a job in itself.
“Some people, when they see a big piece of equipment and flashing lights, it’s like they forget that our turn signals mean something,” Neuenschwander said. “The majority of the time, if the vehicle drivers respect us, we’ll respect them.”
“If somebody respects us and they’re patient, and we see an opportunity where we can maybe slow down and get off to the side where a group of vehicles can pass, we’ll do that,” added Shaum.
Drivers should also be aware of famr machinery turning into a field where there is no road or obvious intersection. Tractors pulling wagons filled full with crops are heavy and can’t stop quickly.
By the numbers
—20 ton: the average load weight;
—700-900 gallon: how much diesel fuel Harmony Harvesting uses a day;
—2200: how many dairy cows Harmony Harvesting helps feed;
—22,000: an average of many gallons of milk those cows provide each day.