HIGHWOOD — It’s harvest season in Montana, and across thousands of acres, the hum of combines marks the rhythm of work that keeps food on tables around the world.
Custom harvesters like Paul Paplow and his crew bring the manpower and machinery so farmers can bring in their crops faster.
Paplow, co-owner of Paplow Harvesting, explains: “Equipment’s expensive, and it’s hard to find help for just two weeks. We can bring six combines in and get it done in five or six days.”
Paplow and his crew start in Texas and work their way north to the Dakotas, covering 130,000 acres per season. But what makes this crew stand out isn’t just the miles they cover, it’s who is running the machines.
This year, seven women are part of the team, including several from overseas, like New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK.
Watch: Custom harvesters bring in Montana crops
“I think in the US it seems really unique, but I mean, if you look at like Australia and the UK, there's a lot of women that work on farms, and we had some interest," Paplow said. "So we thought we'd give it a try.”
One of those women is 23-year-old Eleanor Gilbert, who grew up on a family arable farm just south of London.
“The scale of it out here is just massive, the fields, the equipment - we're running 45 foot headers here. At home, we're running 35, which would be considered big for the UK,” she said.
Eleanor, like most of the other women, joined the Paplow Harvesting crew through a J-1 training visa program through the University of Minnesota, swapping her family farm for a 2,000-mile trek across America’s heartland.
“Being in the ag industry, yes, it can be tough…but it can be one of the best jobs out in nature every single day," she said. "The views from, sort of my office, in the cab are just amazing, especially here in Montana.”
Eleanor’s experience isn’t just about operating machines, she’s documenting her journey online.
Through her YouTube channel, Berkshire Farm Girl, which has amassed more than 15,000 subscribers, she shares the daily life of the harvest trail, from early morning maintenance checks to navigating massive combines, and the sunsets over Montana’s wheat fields.
“I feel like because I’ve shown with my platform, that if I can do it, then they can do it also. And I think that's really nice to show that, and encourage other females into this industry,” Eleanor says.
For Paplow, having women like Eleanor on the crew isn’t just about filling positions, it’s about adding a fresh perspective to the harvest trail.
“They do a great job, great operators, and I have no reason to believe that girls won't become bigger in the U.S. agriculture, just seems like the interest is there,” he said.
For Eleanor, every day brings a new challenge and a new view from the cab, but she’s also using her platform to inspire others and show that agriculture is a career path open to women across the globe.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience, which I think I will never forget, and I'll be talking about for the rest of my life,” she said.
Click here to follow Eleanor on Youtube, or here to follow her on Instagram.
