As fields of wheat begin to display their golden hue, the Reherman families look forward to bringing in the harvest…and spending time with old friends.

Over 40 years ago, when the late Lawrence and Elizabeth Reherman made arrangements with the late Murray and Carolyn Barr of Barr Harvesting out of Glen Allan, Miss., to harvest their wheat, they couldn’t have known the impact it would have on future generations.

Loyally returning every year for the wheat harvest, the Barrs established a special friendship with the Rehermans and their children that has only grown stronger with each successive generation.

Through the years, the Barrs’ sons, Barry (Ann Clare), Chris (Jane) and Buddy (Allie) built a strong bond with the Rehermans’ son Larry, his wife Cena and their children, LJ (Darcy), Ryan (Tasha), Teneille (Creston) Rother, Tiffany (Brendon) Meacham and Stephanie (Bruce) Graham.

A multigenerational custom harvesting business, Barry said his father and grandfather started coming to the Kingfisher area in 1957 and he and his two brothers, Chris and Buddy, began to work alongside them when they were old enough to do so.

Initially harvesting for the Vogts of Okarche, Barry said, “We stuck with them until 1982 when they acquired their own combines.

“That’s when they helped us get on with the Reherman Dairy at the time.”

Having worked with the Rehermans for over 40 years now, Barry said, “they’ve become like family.”

As a family business, Barry said their wives and children always traveled with them and had the opportunity to interact and build relationships with many of the Rehermans’ younger generations.

“The friendship with the Barrs started with my grandparents,” LJ said. “I was probably about 8 years old at the time the Barrs started coming and my dad and his brother, John, were involved with the dairy and farming at the same time.”

Once the dairy closed, LJ said they continued farming and he and his dad have continued working with the Barrs every year since then.

Also drawing the two families closer, LJ said he and his cousins, Kyle Reherman and Clint Kolar, went on harvest with the Barrs several times during their teenage years.

Going on his first harvest at 16 years old, LJ said he participated in several more harvest seasons after high school.

The crew would start around Abilene, Texas, in May and work their way north through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska before heading back to Mississippi for the fall harvest of soybeans, corn and rice lasting from August through October or November.

You definitely become a lot closer when you spend that kind of time together, LJ said.

“I enjoyed just being with them,” LJ added. “They’re good Christian people to be around and fun to hang out with.”

In Mississippi, the Barrs live on a lake where they like to fish and have fish fries, LJ said.

“We’ve gone down to visit and my grandparents went down to visit them too…at this point we’re basically extended family,” he added.

Carrying on the family heritage, LJ is a fourth generation farmer and Barry’s son, Luke, and Chris’ sons, Ben and Thomas, are also fourth generation harvesters.

As the two families have become intertwined, LJ said his nephew, Dylan Meacham, also recently carried on the tradition of going on harvest with the Barrs and even served as a groomsman in Luke’s wedding.

Working for many of the same families year after year, Barry said “We try to stay on the farm and get to know the families we work with… making lasting relationships.”

Making connections everywhere they travel, Barry said, Kingfisher holds added emotional ties for his family.

“I had met with my dad on one these dirt roads out here and we were visiting about how good the harvest had been,” said Barry, recalling a time in 2000.

“That night he had a heart attack and passed away right here in this town.”

With that crushing loss, Barry said he had to leave the harvest with many of his family and go home to plan a funeral for his father.

“Larry and LJ went up with our crew to the next place and helped them get started…so that’s how close our family is,” he added.

That would also be the last year Buddy joined the harvest, leaving the business to start a venture closer to home.

As many things have changed through the years, Barry said their operation now has 16 combines, bringing 10 of those and 15 seasonal employees for the wheat harvest this year.

With months of drought, recurrent rains during the harvest and weeds beginning to overtake the crop, both Barry and LJ agreed it’s been a tough year.

Some of the places farther west, like Laverne, where their crew normally harvests, didn’t even have a wheat crop this year due to the drought, Barry said.

Harvesting about 4,000 acres of wheat for LJ and his dad, as well as acreage for a few others in the county, Barry said what normally takes about two weeks has almost doubled this year with the intermittent rains.

Despite being delayed, Barry said they never move on without finishing the work to be done.

“We have enough machines we make sure our customers are taken care of and we never leave anyone behind when there’s wheat to cut,” Barry said.

Looking back, LJ said he would never have guessed 40 years have passed since the Barrs and the Rehermans forged a true friendship.

Thinking about his children, Savana (14), Kynady (10) and Leyton (6), LJ said he hopes they can also build connections with another Barr generation.

“They do a great job for us and are great friends,” LJ said. “It’s a cool relationship and hard to believe it’s been that many years.”