Harvest jobs give youth skills and confidence

DAYTON - Working harvest is a shared experience for many students and alums from Dayton, Waitsburg, and Prescott High Schools. There are jobs at the elevators, driving trucks, bankout wagons, and combines. Most kids will come back each year, building skills and confidence.

Sage Kilts began working harvest for Deb Fortner when she was 16. Fortner was a horse trainer for her family, and when she asked Sage to work for her, she jumped at the chance. She started as a bankout wagon driver shuttling wheat between the combines and trucks.

Over the six years that Kilts has worked for Deb and Kirk Fortner, she has become Deb's Girl Friday. After three years, she moved up from wagon driver to combine driver. She also helps with drone spotting, working on repurposing a field house, and learning to drive the fuel truck. When Kilts started driving combines, Fortner wanted her in the shop learning and working on combines before getting on one.

Kilts returned to Montana State University after harvest to continue studying architecture. This is her last year at MSU, and she will be studying abroad in Cork County, Ireland.

She chose to study architecture because she said it combined her many interests. Kilts grew up working with a variety of art mediums, including metalworking at school. She helped her grandparents customize their house by fabricating panels for their stair railing.

She is interested in custom home design, with a focus on sustainability and environmental impact issues. Kilts said her work on farm projects and soil evaluation education through FFA has helped her at MSU.

After graduation, she plans to come back to Dayton, saying Montana felt like 12 months of winter. She also plans to go back to work for the Fortners.

"Deb is a great employer. If you have any questions, she has the answer or will find it," Kilts said. "She wants you to understand the machines and how they work from the ground up and to be as safe as possible. She wants a happy crew, which I think she has achieved because we never had problems."

This year, the crew included Sophia Glaus and Leah Scott driving bankout wagons. Eden Glaus started driving semi-trucks this year and was trained by Mike Harding, an experienced semi-truck driver. Zion Bronson and David Saacha work year-round as combine drivers, mechanics, and generally keep things running.

Kilts said it is a very rounded crew, with people who have worked a long time and are mechanically wired. The younger drivers will hear or notice something wrong with the equipment, and the long-time crew will be able to pinpoint the problem.

"You will have a great time working for her, and learn things you didn't think you could learn," said Kilts, who said anyone offered a job by Deb should take it.