Columbia Basin, Ephrata, WA | scrapper - 7/26/2026 19:02
Here in EWA we had a Red Flag Event Saturday. Little humidity, 25mph sustained winds, 90+ temps. We shut down wheat harvest around 2pm. Going over the combine we found a belt that needed replacement. Called the local dealership and got a very cheerful message “ we close at noon on Saturday”. Left a message for the after hours parts service and after a half hour called the store mgr. Using his best incredulous tone he informed me those are the hours of operation year round! I guess I should count my lucky stars I haven’t broken down on Saturday until now! And how dare I try to make a living with the weather I have to work with!
He did however roust out the on call guy who located the belt and set it in the after hours bin for me so I could make the 100 mile round trip to pick it up.
I’m 70 years old. This crop makes 50 of them that I answer for everything that goes right or wrong. The lack of work ethic, and sense of entitlement that comes from big brand equipment companies leaves a bitter taste in my mouth! You young guys have a long uphill battle ahead.
The acronym for these guys as my good neighbor calls them is Ridiculous Dumb Outfit. Can’t think of a better one!
I get where you’re coming from, and it sucks. There are plenty of us that still need to get some things done 7 days per week, and it’s certainly getting harder to do, and more expensive.
That said, I’m sure the dealers close more on weekends now because of lack of foot traffic. As farming continues to transition away from owners to employees doing the work, less gets done on the weekends. Everyone wants their days off, it’s not their crop on the line, and owners don’t want employees booking a bunch of overtime (now required) anyway. Big farms keep their own stock of 24 hour mission-critical stuff (like irrigation parts and milking parlor supplies) that their rotating schedule employees can access, and the dealer becomes a ghost town on the weekends as everyone else gets their time off.
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