A Big Step Up In Equipment For Local Grain Production

By ELISE DALLEY

The Progress

Agriculture is an important way of life for some people in Moapa Valley. Local residents, Scott Whipple, Stan Hardy, and Jim Hardy are community members who recognize the importance of maintaining local agriculture and dedicating their time and money to ensure that it continues.

Whipple, owner of Legacy Rock, recently bought a big John Deere combine in order to better agricultural production of staple crops and feed grain in the valley. Scott said that he had been looking for combines for awhile. So after many months of careful searching, he was finally able to come across one in Oregon.

“It was actually the biggest combine model sold during the years in which it was made.” Whipple said. “I would say it’s also the biggest combine in the valley as well.”

Along with it, Whipple purchased two 15-16 ft heads: one for harvesting corn and another for other grains.
“It is a big machine to get around,” Whipple said. “So I went kind of small on the heads so that we could get around the smaller fields and through gates like we have here in the valley.”

But the combine can easily handle much bigger jobs than that. Whipple said that in the midwest, similar machines are used with 45-foot wide heads.
“With what we deal with around here, that machine is just working in idle to do the job,” Whipple said. “But it works well.”

Hardy and Whipple’s plan for the combine is to put it to use as soon as they can.
“Scott bought it all,” said local farmer Stan Hardy. “But we are going to partner on it and buy some grains to use for the cows and hopefully to even sell to the people.”

They plan to keep the combine in use primarily in the valley. While they do have the equipment to rent it out, they still are considering whether or not to do that.

In the end, the biggest reason for the combine purchase was to become more food independent in the community.

Last year, the Hardys started smaller by growing a field of wheat. This year they plan to go bigger and grow even more.

They have also purchased a silo. Their plan is to put some wheat and grain in it and store it there. There is always the alternative to feed it to the cows if the wheat doesn’t end up being used soon enough. But they plan to grow it and store it for people so that it can be used for bread and other foods. It’ll be close to 20 tons of wheat which they plan to trade out at the end of every year.

This is an especially big deal to Whipple and Hardy. Being farmers at heart, they say they want to be able to help feed their community in case anything happens again like the COVID-19 pandemic or worse.

“Mostly, we did this because we wanted to,” Stan Hardy said. “But also because you never know what is going to happen. If something ever happens again like when things shut down during the pandemic, we felt like we needed to start planning and be prepared. If you run out of bread at the store today, you can’t have wheat grown tomorrow unless you plan for it and have it ready.”

Currently, the Hardys along with Whipple are using the combine for cutting corn. The wheat will be planted within the next month or so and won’t be ready for harvest until next summer, around June.
“The main thing is to have some wheat in storage in case we need it,” Whipple said. “If we don’t ever need it, then we’ll rotate it through the cows and the livestock.”

“We are not doomsdayers, we are just preppers,” said Hardy. “We are prepared. Not everyone can do that at this level. So we are going to help and plan ahead. We have use for the grain as well for grazing cows.”