Harvest: Excitement is in the Air
Harvest season on a farm is one of the best and most exciting times of the year. The farm centers around one activity and all the members of the crew are working together for one goal: to collect the fruits of the long and laborious summer months. The air begins to cool, the leaves start to turn a faded yellow and Friday night lights are bright across all the rural farming communities. (I love a good football game!) There is a collective sigh of relief that the crop year is almost complete, and everyone is anxious to find out how the crop performed.
We’ve had a tough crop year. The late winter saw huge spikes in the cost of everything we buy to produce food for your table. From seeds to nutrients, energy costs to labor costs, machinery and parts, aerial application to the smallest of needs such as office supplies- it all costs more. The margins are nonexistent. But we do what we do – grow food to feed you and the world. We plant a crop and pray that something will change from spring to fall. We have experienced drastic changes in prices during the growing season before so we know it can happen. Many times, it feels like the pull of a slot machine. There is the excitement as the wheels spin (the crops grow) then they begin to stop one by one. Corn harvest, then rice harvest, then soybeans. The possibility exists of a big pay out, but the odds are against it. We just hope we win enough to take home what we brought to the game, year after year after year.
The spring of 2022 was challenging just like the past few have been for us. It was difficult to plant our crops due to excessive rains. Then when the rains stopped, they stopped for almost 50 days. At that time the temperatures rose and even though our farm is fully irrigated the crops struggled. The heat was excessive. The plants simply tried to survive. Our crew, like most every farm in our area, worked tirelessly to keep the irrigation systems running. Whether that water source is from groundwater, surface water such as reservoirs or recycling water from field to field it is grueling work on the many 100+ degree days we experienced. Nothing wants to work properly in that heat! Motors overheat, levees break, furrows do not flow correctly. A drought makes it all more difficult.
Then finally the drought ended, and we received many timely rains to finish out our corn and rice to maturity. What a blessing! We were able to save some energy costs by not running our irrigation wells at maximum capacity as they had been running during the drought. The plants appeared to begin to finally thrive as the temperatures became milder as well. But were they? We really do not know for sure until our combines begin to harvest the grain. I have learned to never guess the yields. Just like the slot machine, you never know what will turn up!
Unfortunately, we have needed to continue to irrigate our soybeans because the weather has once again turned dry. I hate to complain about that now since we are also trying to harvest. The dry weather is great for harvest so we will just keep watering for just a bit longer. As I write this, our area has only received 1.25 inches of rain in the past 6 weeks. It has been great for mowing the lawn while we are busy!! I try to find the positive side of things as you can see. For now, I hope to keep the combines rolling, the grain bins drying grain, and our trucks hauling our precious cargo to the final point of sale.
Got to get back to work so I will sign off by saying – Eat US grown rice!!
-Jennifer