The Work Between Planting and Harvest

Some days on the farm don't involve planting or harvest. They're about protecting what you've already built.

Today was fungicide and foliar application day in our soybean fields.

From the road, it might just look like another sprayer making another pass across another field. But there's a lot more going on than simply driving through soybeans.

By this point in the season, we've already invested months of planning, planting, rainfall, sunshine, agronomy, and yes, a little hope. This trip across the field is about protecting that investment during one of the most important stages of the crop's development.

Good farming isn't just about growing a crop. It's about making timely decisions when conditions are right and the potential return justifies the investment.

Sometimes that decision is to spray.

Sometimes the right decision is not to.

Every pass across a field costs money, so every pass has to earn its keep.

As I watched the sprayer work its way across these fields today, I was reminded that much of farming is invisible. Most people notice planting and harvest. The weeks in between are where many of the decisions that determine the final yield are made.

Farming isn't a series of dramatic moments. It's hundreds of timely decisions, each one trying to give the crop its best chance to succeed.

Those quiet decisions rarely make the news, but they're part of the responsibility that comes with caring for the land. They are part of the promise every farmer makes to leave the field in better shape than they found it and to produce the best crop they can.

That's farming.