TO MATCH FEATURE STORY LIFE-NOMADS, 2001-06-20 (photo)

Lance Frederick, 18 year veteran of the custom harvesting industry, is photographed with a John Deere combine in the background in Penalosa, Kansas, June 20, 2001. Frederick with his brothers and their caravan of crew and family members are the nomads of the plains. Their 22-member clan treks annually from Texas north to Montana and back again, traveling the rutted, unpaved side roads of the nation's heartland, cutting wheat, corn, sunflowers, canola and more. The nomadic lifestyle, contracting with farmers who do not have the time, money or other resources to bring in their own crops, is not unique to Frederick Harvesting. Indeed, the brothers' outfit is one of an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 custom harvesting companies that annually trace a path through rural America to collect the food that feeds millions. HK/ME