MONROE — At a time when performance is measured by yield, and ultimate success is defined by numbers, it is worthwhile to take a step back to appreciate the human element of the fall harvest.

Farmers are generally enthusiastic about letting someone ride along to share thoughts and perspectives, but all of the operators referenced here share one commonality:

“You can ask me anything, but please don’t put my name in the paper.”

The first farmer I flagged down was harvesting soybeans. Soybeans are dry this year, and running about ten bushels per acre lower than expected. It used to be that the harvest would be kicked off by the first frost of the season. Sometime in September, the first hard frost would signal the end of the growing season, but that hasn’t happened lately — the frosts haven’t come until October.

Rather, the past couple years, the harvest is kicked off by hot dry weather. The crops dry out like a switch has been flipped. From morning to late afternoon, you can see the leaves drying up and dropping off. This, from the heat and lack of rain, rather than a typical killing frost.

More than one might realize, the soybean crop is affected by global circumstances well beyond any individual control. Argentina planted more soybeans this year due to leaf hoppers in the corn; their corn yields are down, but soybean yields are up. Every year, Brazil expands their crop acreage and grows more. We are in a global economy — China buys up a tremendous amount of South American commodities, and has invested incredible resources into infrastructure in South America. And since the South American growing season is opposite to ours, the harvest happens from February to June. A bumper crop in South America lowers prices here in America. And that doesn’t even touch on the exchange rate — just a minor fluctuation in world currencies has a tremendous impact on our prices here.

Another concern: The Mississippi River is nine feet below flood stage, which means barges will have to be loaded lighter in order to haul commodities. It will take more barges to haul the same amount of corn and soybeans, which will result in higher shipping costs for the producers.

This farmer spoke so casually about the world markets and domestic circumstances. His face carried the weathered lines of a man who has lived through these uncertainties year after year for a generation or more, but with the knowing smile that it will work out. He maneuvered his million-dollar piece of machinery with the ease of an aviator. To his right, a color touch-screen computer monitor beeped and flashed yield, performance, tracked data, and featured a moving map display of the field.

He smiled, “I’m excited about this technology. My grandkids really wrap themselves around this stuff. I’m a little slower, but I’ve been able to adapt just fine.”

The second operator is just a kid — barely out of high school, taking college classes in agriculture, and commuting between his family’s farm while training to obtain his commercial drivers’ license. His dream: to take over the family farm, which had grown to include thousands of acres and millions of dollars worth of equipment — enough to make anyone’s head spin. He operated his combine cautiously, having not yet earned the decades of experience. 

“That guy over there is the best grain cart operator we’ve ever had,” which is a glimpse into the world of harvest like no other. The cart pulled alongside the combine and took on a load of soybeans without so much as slowing down. The two farmers waved at each other during the pass, and the cart pulled away without spilling so much as a bean.

The third operator was harvesting corn, which he did not figure he would do until the second week of October. “Beans are too dry.” If soybeans are harvested too wet, the farmer gets docked on price. If the soybeans are too dry, like they are this year, the farmer takes a 5% yield dock. So, he started the harvest with corn, which has been running anywhere from mid teens to mid twenties on moisture, depending on the field. He started with the sidehills and shallow ground first because, as the plants dry out, all it will take is a heavy rain or wind to flatten the stalks, rendering the grain impossible to harvest.

This will be an average corn harvest, yield-wise. It should have been higher, but with heavy spring rains, the corn roots spread out horizontally rather than vertically. Thus, flash-drought happens when the surface is dry, even though the substrate is holding moisture but unreachable to the shallow roots.

When asked about their greatest concern going into the harvest, to the individual the farmers referenced “Input Costs.” The price of fuel, hired labor, replacement parts, and machinery have all skyrocketed since COVID-19. Meanwhile, the value of the crop has only decreased.

Another operator said it best: “We have lost 40% of the value of our product, but the cost of producing that product has increased 40%.”

If flagging down a farmer and riding in a combine and listening for a couple hours illustrates anything, it is that the American farmer remains the most steadfast, vigilant, and adaptive individual on the face of the planet. There is no such thing as a typical day, week, year, season, or life in farming.

“Take what you learn from any given year, put it on a shelf, and forget about it because next year will be totally different.” That’s Harvest 2024 in a nutshell.