Harvest 2019

It is the start of December and most have switched over to Christmas mode, which is evident in the number of Christmas trees up and all the various twinkling house decorations. For most farmers in our neighborhood however there has been no switching out of harvest season. The combines are still rolling, daily dinners are still being made, and a full farmer is a happy farmer even if it is just a snack. The toolboxes have been restocked and stuffed to accommodate chains. This year a chain is the farmers new best friend. The fields are a little muddier than usual. More times than most care to admit, a chain is needed to help a spinning load of grain get to solid ground on the way to the gate. There are often big ruts in the field once it has been harvested and muddy tracks on the road showing which direction the equipment headed when it left the field.


Harvest 2019 is one we won't soon forget. The weather has made it a challenge all year long. Not only that but I think it is time to refill our toolboxes with those most important tools to get us through the rest of this extra long, stressful harvest season. I mentioned these earlier this fall but they are worth repeating. Patience. On some harvest days our patience can run pretty thin. Especially if that day consists of getting the chain out numerous times before noon because someone is stuck in the field again. Passion. This fall weather has made us question our passion for farming but it only takes a minute to realize there is nowhere else we’d rather be. Faith. Our faith reminds us that we will get through this, the end is in sight. 2019 is one to remember and one that truly tested our patience, passion, and faith. We might need to restock those inside of our toolbox for the years to come because we used so much of each of those tools this year.


My older brothers have been home for the past 10 days on their fall break from college. Brad has spent quite a few of those days in the combine. Todd has been a great help in the semi hauling grain. They’ve both been “broke to lead” with a chain. They have tested dad’s patience this fall more than a couple of teenage girls that just started dating. The teaching moments have been plenty and we have all learned a lot! Let’s hope that the next few weeks the weather will be in our favor, the chain stays in the toolbox, and harvest gets rolling along. I am certain that for farmers this year, seeing an end to harvest 2019 will shine brighter than any of the neighborhood Christmas lights! 

~ Kesley Holdgrafer

Thanksgiving

While the weather outside might remind some of us of Christmas because of all the snow, it is actually only November and November is known for Thanksgiving. When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of food. A day full of feasting over delicious food. My mouth begins to water just thinking about it. Even though the weather outside is holding farmers back once again and the rush to get harvest done is still going, there is no denying that Thanksgiving is coming.

This year's harvest is the first one that I have officially been 16 and when I am not in school I am on lunch duty. Lunch delivery is my specialty. Grandma is famous for making lunches, I simply deliver them to the field. One thing I have noticed about lunch duty is that even though farmers might be in a hurry to get crops out, farmers are in just as big of a hurry to find their lunch. As soon as the vehicle with lunch pulls into the field, all the tractors, combines, and semis rush to the vehicle to get their meal. Most would think that since it is late in the year, farmers would not be worried about lunch so much. However, whenever I pull in the gate with lunch I often question which wagon is more important. The lunch wagon or the grain wagon? The most important thing about harvest season is to keep the stressed farmers happy. When you have a hungry farmer, you will have a cranky farmer. I can assure you from my personal experience that nobody wants that! We are very thankful for the Thanksgiving feasts we have at the end of November and the feasts we receive all harvest long, made by grandma and delivered out to the field.


All in all, even with the rush to get crops out this year there will always be time for lunch. A full farmer is a happy farmer. I want to thank all the wonderful people behind the scenes that help keep these farmers going all fall as you are the real heroes. I hope everyone continues to have a safe and successful fall and a yummy Thanksgiving meal. 

~Kesley Holdgrafer

National Convention

Two weeks ago I was given an amazing opportunity through the Northeast FFA chapter to attend the 92nd National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis. For those who do not know, FFA is an extracurricular organization for students interested in agriculture and leadership. The official name of the group is the National FFA Organization. Some might know it just as FFA, which used to stand for Future Farmers of America. This was changed in 1988 because the FFA also welcomes members who aspire to careers as teachers, doctors, scientists, business owners, and more. Not only are we future farmers, we are future biologist, future chemist, future veterinarians, and future entrepreneurs.

The National FFA Convention and Expo is a four-day event held in Indianapolis every October. This is a premier gathering during which all FFA competitive events and programs are recognized nationally. This year almost 70,000 people attended the 92nd National FFA Convention and Expo. While there, FFA members could participate in leadership workshops, visit the career show, and listen to several amazing public speakers. From a student standpoint, I believe that National Convention is something all FFA members should attend. I had the chance to meet people from almost every state. I got to meet back up with old friends I meet at other conferences including the Washington Leadership Conference I attended this past summer. I also had the chance to talk with industry leaders and universities across the country about future careers and educational opportunities. I even ran into one of the representatives from the University of Tennessee that we worked with this past summer while at the ARSBC Conference.

All in all, FFA is an amazing organization that I am proud to be a part of. It is not everyday you go out to make hundreds of new lifelong friends from all over the United States!



~Kesley Holdgrafer

Harvest

It’s officially November. Which means the leaves have changed, the Halloween costumes are put away, the temperatures have dropped, and harvest 2019 is still a work in progress. Every farmer is busy in the field with hopes of at least getting the crops out by Christmas. This tends to lead to all hands on deck and means everyone has a specific role to play in order for things to sail smoothly. Whether you are the one in the field or at home on the farm you have a certain role to play.

This past week my younger brother Luke and I were at home while everyone else was in the field. We got informed that there were three loads of feeder cattle on their way to our house and we were in charge. In other words, as my older brothers like to call it, “We were the monkeys in charge of the bananas.” We had to sort the cattle into the right yards along with counting them as they came off the trailer. To some, this might sound like a simple task as counting is a skill learned in preschool. However, this basic skill escalates quickly into an Olympic sport because some groups of calves come off the trailer at rocket speed. Even though it was a little harder than anticipated it was not that bad and we got along just fine.

All in all, everyone has an important job come harvest season. Whether you are the one in the combine or even around the farm helping out, the people in the background are what keeps everything going smoothly. I hope you all have a good November and if you happen to get the monkey, keep an accurate count of the bananas!

~ Kesley Holdgrafer

Happy November

It’s officially November, which means the leaves have changed, the Halloween costumes are put away, the temperatures have dropped, and harvest 2019 is still a work in progress. Every farmer is busy in the field with hopes of at least getting the crops out by Christmas. This tends to lead to all hands on deck and means everyone has a specific role to play in order for things to sail smoothly. Whether you are the one in the field or at home on the farm you have a certain role to play.

This past week my brother Luke and I were at home while everyone else was in the field. We got informed that there were three loads of cattle on their way to our house and we were in charge. In other words as my brothers like to call it, we were the monkeys in charge of the bananas. We had to sort the cattle into the right yards along with counting them as they came off the trailer. To some, this might sound like a simple task, counting is a skill learned in preschool. However, this basic skill quickly turns into an Olympic sport, because some groups of calves come off the trailer at rocket speed. Even though it was a little harder than anticipated it was not that bad and we got along just fine.

All in all, everyone has an important job come harvest season. Whether you are the one in the combine or even around the farm helping out. The people in the background are what keeps everything going smoothly. I hope you all have a good November,

~ Kesley Holdgrafer

Halloween

Halloween is near and the smell of pumpkins fill the air. People spend all month getting into the Halloween spirit. Whether it is decorating their lawn, carving pumpkins, or even attending a haunted house or corn maze, people love this time of year. Of course you can’t forget about trick or treating. I remember as a kid I would always get dressed up to go trick or treating in my Cinderella costume. Because it is Iowa, my costume always ended up being covered up with a heavy winter coat or even sometimes snow pants. It never fails to be extremely cold and sometimes even snowy in Iowa on Halloween.


For a lot of people this is their favorite month and the American population who participate will in total spend $9 billion on Halloween. This year roughly, $3.2 billion will be spent on costumes, $2.7 billion on decorations, $2.6 billion on candy, and $400 million on greeting cards. If it were up to me we would take out the greeting card money and add it to the candy pile.


If you are a kid growing up on a farm however, Halloween might seem like a confusing time. Farmer rules and Halloween rules aren’t always the same thing. For example, people will put up huge corn mazes for the holiday and encourage everyone to walk through, but farmers always tell their kids never to play in corn fields. My dad had strict rules to make sure we stayed out of the corn fields for as long as I can remember. We were not allowed to play in the corn as a small child could easily get lost. At pumpkin patches there will often be huge sandboxes full of shelled corn. Again, farmers always inform their children to never play in the corn. Bins filled with grain are always off limits. We are never to go inside without an adult and shovel, and even then it is not for fun. Both of these are huge dangers for young children on a farm looking for somewhere to play.


Farm rules and Halloween pumpkin patch/corn maze rules are completely different. These strict rules need to be stressed to all kids and even some adults reminding them of the dangers of these things on a real farm. Farm safety week was not that long ago and makes me realize that everyone should always be informed of the potential dangers of playing in the corn that is not in a Halloween setting.


Have fun and enjoy the Halloween festivities but be sure to remember any other day it is not safe to play in the corn on the farm. I hope everyone has a great Halloween and don’t eat too much candy! 

 ~ Kesley Holdgrafer

Bailing

Harvest 2019 is off to an extremely late start. Frustrating weather conditions have pushed back us back by at least two weeks from the normal for around here. With this late start, our family has only been in the field for three days which is simply unheard of for the middle of October. And of those measly three days in the field so far this harvest, only one day was combining corn.The wet bin is now empty, the dryer is silent and all attention is on cutting beans while we get that small glimmer of sunshine in between the gloomy fall weather we’ve been having lately. I miss my loud corn dryer with that famous flame and roar that usually lulls me to sleep during the fall. Last night I was lulled to sleep by the clothes dryer, which is another odd sound this time of year. Usually mom is soaking up the last of the sunshine days with all of our laundry on the clothesline but it has even been tough to get the clothes dry outside.



Another unheard of thing for this time of year is that we are also still trying to finish up the hay. Todd was home from college for a few days last week and instead of helping in the corn field, he was cuttting hay. Yesterday it was finally ready to rake and bale. With everyone else in the family busy doing beans, Dad called Luke and I out of school at noon. You know Dad has run out of options when we get called out of school to bale! Even though Mom does have a teaching degree that she has never used, I was really missing Dad’s patience and in depth explanations on how the baler operates. Instead, Mom was trying to refresh us in a quick Bailing 101 class before setting us free on our own in the hay field.



After a long afternoon in the baler, I was feeling pretty good on my way home. The fields all got baled before they got tough. We got along even better than I expected and we were home before dark. I only had one bale I kicked out without any wrap. It was operator error. I opened the gate to kick the big bale out before the wrapping was done. Lucky for me it was in the very back of the field, not along the road, and in one of our own fields, not a customers! I was pretty excited to be putting balers in the shed as third crop hay was finally finished. But then I remembered, cornstalk season is just beginning!?! What have I done? I might be in a baler until Christmas! I shouldn’t have done so well, now dad will be calling all the time. I seriously need to look into changing my cell number! On the bright side, at least I might get to miss more school!




~ Kesley Holdgrafer