Summer Heat

As we reach the middle of June, we are officially in the heart of summer. Long, hot, and humid days are here and nothing beats coming inside to the cold air conditioned house after being outside working on the farm. The big question though is how do farmers do it? How do they continue to work out in the heat? Farmers love what they do. It can either be negative temperatures with below zero windchill or boiling hot temperatures and they would still choose to be outside on the farm then anywhere else.

Everybody knows that on a hot day you must continue to drink lots of water in order to keep from getting dehydrated. For a long day in a baler or anything else, farmers are sure to bring several full, plastic water bottles or even a big jug of water, pop, or Gatorade. Sometimes though, farmers are in a huge hurry and they rush out of the lane so fast they forget their water or they only grab one, which will definitely not last them a full day. As soon as the farmer realizes they forgot something to drink, they usually become super thirsty and begin to search the whole cab for a hidden bottle. Truck and tractor cabs can fill up with many empty water or pop bottles if not cleaned out regularly. If they are lucky enough, they might find one with some old water still in it. The problem is that water is always warm and you have no idea who drank from that bottle before you. If you are extremely lucky, there just might be an old can of pop that has rolled around so long it has no label left and the aluminum is covered in dirt. Without a label you can not tell if it is a diet or regular Pepsi, or even what year it expired. At that point though, it doesn’t really matter because you are super thirsty and it is better than the alternative of not drinking anything at all.


I hope everyone has a safe and amazing summer, and farmers, do not forget to bring plenty of fresh cold water and pop for a long summer day in the field. 

~ Kesley Holdgrafer