It’s harvest time in the midwest

It’s harvest time in the Central USA and the combines are rolling. It was a cooler summer than most, so the crops aren’t as well developed as we’d like to see. Things are a bit behind, especially in the east. The corn is usually picked at a moisture content around 20, and right now it’s running in the mid 30’s. That means farmers will have to pay a lot more to dry down the crop before taking it to the elevator.

The air is crisp, the machines are chugging away and we’re excited to see how big the yields are this year. We’re hoping for a big crop to offset some of the lower crop prices we have right now. A lot of people forget how much farmers have to spend just getting a crop in the field. $23,000 on fertilizer and $30,000 on seed is typical even for a small family farm. To think we spend more on those two items in a season than I make in a full year at my day job.

Most farmers need to supplement their income with a regular job in town. Either the wives work or the man works when there isn’t any crop work to be done. In our case we irrigate our crops so we work in the fields all summer and then have a winter job to supplement the crop income. It’s a nice change of pace and doesn’t require us to borrow from our operating loan during those months. Farming is an interesting way of life. You have to love it, but it also gives great rewards in terms of lifestyle.

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