That time of year

when the harvest starts in earnest.  For soybeans, anyway.  There's a lot more corn grown these days than either beans or wheat in southern Minnesota.  Heck, I think I saw only one or two wheat fields this season.  I guess there's just more money in corn.   Year after year after year, corn field after corn field.  It gets pretty monotonous.

A combine harvesting soybeans

I just wish farmers did more crop rotation, rather than pumping so much fertilizer into the ground. Corn is a nutrient-greedy crop, and leaves the soil empty after it's grown.  Soybeans are legumes and fix nitrogen (an important fertilizer) into the soil, which works well with crop rotation.  But I guess money is more important than soil health.

A few years ago I took a different way home from work and spotted a field of sorghum about ten miles from my house.  I was so excited I had to stop my car and just stare at it.

Sorghum - stock photo

The corn harvest won't start til October.  And depending on the weather, can extend into November.  I remember one year that we still had standing corn the first week of December because October and November were so wet the farmers couldn't get into their fields.  They had to wait until the ground froze in December before their huge machines wouldn't sink into the muck.

Corn field

If they just grew wheat, which is harvested in August, they wouldn't have to worry about the rain.  They could just sit back, chill and drink mimosas on a beach in Tahiti while the corn farmers bit their nails watching October weather reports.

Most of what's grown around here is field corn, destined for animal feed.  Sweet corn is harvested in August and early September.  The Del Monte cannery in Sleepy Eye closed last year, which was a big hit to the community.  Boy, that place was hopping during harvest.  Once a few years ago I drove to the cannery and parked along the back fence.  I watched truck load after truck load of sweet corn being dumped on the paved lot inside the fence.  Tractors with blades pushed the piles toward a large hole in the pavement.  Underground elevators would then carry the ears up into the factory.  The whole area smelled of warm corn and August sun.

Photo from Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch

It's a unique smell, that of harvest corn.  You can sometimes catch it while driving down a rural road after dark in October.  When the farmers are working late into the evening, trying to get everything in before the next day's rain.  Bright headlights of combines in the field, moving slowly through the tall rows.  The night is cool and still and the air is heavy with corn stalks and husks and dust churning together.