Kitzmans plan to sell registered Reins oats for growers for next season

UPHAM, N.D. – As the foundational Reins oats turn a golden color on the Kitzman farm in the north central region of the state, it is an indication that harvest is approaching quickly – likely within the next two weeks.

“We’re sitting in pretty good shape here. We have had some nice rain, so maybe we’ll start combining in a couple of weeks from now (July 26). I thought it was going to be sooner on some of the oats, but we’ve had more rain and that will help the oats finish well,” said Chance Kitzman, who farms with his dad, Shawn. “The oats look really nice this year, and it looks like we’ll have plenty of bushels at harvest.”

Shawn contacted the seed company earlier in the year and was able to get Foundation Reins oat seed to grow this year, so the Kitzmans will have registered oats available for sale for anyone to grow for the 2026 season.  

“Our Foundation Reins oats will get cleaned this fall or this winter and be for sale for anyone who is looking to grow registered oats next season,” Chance said.

Reins is an oat for food usage, and Chance said they enjoy growing them because they are not as tall as some others, only about 3 feet tall. The oats for food have been a nice crop for their farm.

“Reins oats have shorter stature and shorter maturity than other oats, with heading at 59 days,” he said. “There are a couple of varieties that are around that maturity, but a lot of the other oats that are pretty popular don’t mature until far longer – into the mid-60s.”

All of their oats are hauled to Bottineau after harvest, only 20-30 minutes away, which Chance said was “pretty handy for us.”

The Kitzman farm received an inch of rain one day and four-tenths of an inch another day over the past couple of weeks.

The moisture has also given a last-minute boost to the oats, which still had a little bit of green in them. Chance hopes it will help keep the test weight good, as well.

“The rains were pretty timely – definitely good for the beans, the corn, and everything else,” he said

Chance was also relieved that none of the severe thunderstorms, with big hail and strong winds, hit their farm this summer.

Last year, the crops were affected by dry conditions, but that is not happening so far this year.

“We did get some pretty poor test weight last year,” he said.

The bouts of rain helped the soybeans close rows and look nice and green, while the canola and corn are flourishing, as well.

“The soybeans are 30 inches tall – knee-high – and actually look pretty nice this year,” Chance said.

The Kitzmans’ corn has started tasseling and will begin pollinating in the next week or so.

“Our corn is doing pretty good. We’re probably 50 percent tasseling right now,” he said.

As for their canola, it also looks nice in the fields.

“The canola is looking pretty nice. It is done flowering, the petals are dropping, and the pods are starting to fill,” he said.

They have the Neeralta grain bagging equipment and grain bags ready to go for their own harvest.

As Neeralta dealers, they have also parked a couple of baggers and an extractor sitting up at their farm corner by the highway, demonstrating that they have everything a farmer needs for grain bagging storage available for sale.

“It’s a pretty slick outfit. Dad is actually delivering another extractor to a guy this weekend. The extractor picks up the bags after you fill them,” Chance said.

They also sell bags in different sizes, so there is a size for every farmer, depending on what they need.

“We have bags that are 300 feet, 400 feet, and 500 feet. We use the 400-foot bags ourselves for all our crops. There are some older baggers that the 500-foot bags don’t fit on either. They don’t have enough room,” he said. “When the grain bagging units first came out, the 300-foot bags were all they had.”

Many guys prefer the 400-foot bags, as the 500-foot bags can get bulky and hard to move.

“You can probably get around 17,000 bushels of wheat in one 400-foot bag,” Chance said.

Chance, a board member of the North Dakota Farm Bureau, had a meeting in mid-July and there will be another one in September.

“The meeting in July was more of a housekeeping meeting, and as far as the state board meeting goes, they’re getting close to the end of their fiscal year. We’ll have our financial meeting in September, and they’ll talk about how harvest has been so far for farmers across the state and do some of the more technical stuff,” he said.

The Promotion and Education Committee at the Farm Bureau gave out $20,000 in scholarships to students heading to college earlier this year, Chance added.