Harvest season is here

Travis Willson drives a combine Saturday afternoon, July 25, harvesting soft white wheat on the Kinch Farms field at the corner of Ellinger Road and Highway 261. Riding beside him as signalman is canine Chloe. Several workers converged on the field for the harvest, including Brock Kinch, A.J. Miller, Travis Willson and James Enyeart. James Crittenden, unloading trucks at the Ritzville Warehouse in Washtucna, said harvest began two weeks ago. “We’ve got five farms harvesting right now, out of a total of eight,” Crittenden said, as trucks pulled up to the scales one after the other Saturday afternoon. From the bin below the scales, the wheat was conveyed over to a tank. There, Tristan Meek was loading trucks out of a 312,000 bushel tank, with the trucks headed to the Ritzville Warehouse’s barge facility on the Columbia River. “We have to get it in and get it out, while we have all these extra trucks,” Crittenden said. “In the winter, we unload tanks for shipment to the train terminal.” See photo collage of the harvest on B section front page, more photos online.