I write this with a sigh of relief that the harvest season is over. I am always excited when it begins and just as excited when it ends.
This year things went pretty well, although there always seem to be some challenges or breakdowns during harvest.
For the 2021 harvest, our main challenge was getting the corn to feed into the combine. Like many farmers in our area we had some severe storms that blew the corn down followed by times of drought that made the corn seem to die off early and fall to the ground.
Once the corn is leaning so low to the ground, it’s hard to get the corn into the combine. So, even though we have these big ears of corn, we can’t harvest them!
Fortunately, our corn withstood the elements pretty well and our loss was minimal. But it was still hard to see these large ears of corn lying down on the ground.
Whenever I had a moment to spare I would walk around areas of the field picking up ears of corn. We also had a reel we attached to the corn head, which helped feed the corn into the combine.
Considering these challenges I am very thankful for how the harvest went.
With Thanksgiving upon us, I can definitely think of many things to be thankful for. I got to spend another year working alongside my dad on our family farm, no one got hurt during the harvest season, and all the breakdowns we had were fixable. And, we have food on the table and a warm bed to sleep in.
But, most of all, we are done with harvest!
Now that harvest is finished, we can start planning for next year. We will start thinking about what seed varieties to plant, how we want to manage weeds and other pests, catch up on bookkeeping, and working and maintaining all the machinery and equipment.
For a moment we can also pause, consider how the year went, and choose to be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving!
