Now that the snow is here and the equipment is cleaned up and put away and the crop has been hauled into town or to the farm. It is a time to reflect on harvest 2022. There really isn’t much to say. Just A lot to be thankful for and a season to remind farmers why they love to farm. The highlights were record yields and great weather to sum it up. With 30 days straight of no rain, a lot of work was accomplished in a short amount of time. Not saying that when some moisture did show up it was well welcomed.
As with every crop year some challenges always arise out in the harvest landscape. This year from the get go it seemed to be soybean plants with wet stems but dry beans in the pods that made for a slow go. Isn’t it something that this day in age that having to slow down to cut soybeans is a challenge. That always makes me take a step back to appreciate the machines that are operated now. As far as challenges across the country go, that was the most common one. Otherwise it was; “not being able to take the crop away fast enough” which is a positive challenge and something that we strive for every year I think and makes a farmer start thinking about their infrastructure.
An observation that I had noticed as harvest went on was that high fertility and low fertility areas of fields showed up clearly. What made this possible was how dry it was throughout the season. If you paid attention, there could be changes made in the future based upon those observations that will benefit the following years crops.
Overall, Harvest 2022 in south central Minnesota was one for the books. Here is to Harvest 2023!
