Tag: soybeans

Can’t Take the Farm Out of the Girl

One comment

If you would have told me my senior year of high school I would be farming with my dad six years later, I would have laughed at you and told you not a chance.  At that time, I thought I wanted to be some big wig executive in the Chicago area.

I went for that dream and upon graduating the University of Illinois with a degree in Finance and a concentration in Real estate moved to Arlington Heights to become a Commercial Real Estate Credit Analyst for a bank up there.  Let’s just say you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl and I moved back to Central Illinois in a year.

It was a very difficult year for me and it didn’t take me long to realize it was the farm I was missing and nothing else.  I was blessed to obtain a position at a bank in Bloomington, Ill. after returning home.

At that point I realized farming was in my blood and I was right where I wanted to be. Dad and I have been working together ever since.  Weekends are spent side by side with my father and typically you will find me under a piece of machinery covered in dirt, oil and/or grease.  Both he and I, the 5th and 6th generations of our family farm, work full time jobs in addition to our grain farm operation.

Some say farming isn’t a girl’s world, but for me it is and I know several other farm girls ready to prove those words wrong.  I wouldn’t trade my life for anything and I am beyond blessed to be a farm girl from Central Illinois.

Check out photos from Harvest 2015 on the Huffman Farm.

[envira-gallery id="480"]
[envira-gallery slug="huffman-harvest-2"]

Farm Fresh Podcast: Soggy Summer, Dry Fall

Leave a comment
Combine Driver's Ed: McLean County grain farmer, Gerald Thompson (right) hosted a group of local mom's for a harvest field visit in early October and handed over the reigns of the combine driving for a few minutes to guest Sarah Mathis. Photo by: Catrina Rawson, IFB Photographer

Combine Driver’s Ed: McLean County grain farmer, Gerald Thompson (right) hosted a group of local mom’s for a harvest field visit in early October and handed over the reigns of the combine driving for a few minutes to guest Sarah Mathis. Photo by: Catrina Rawson, IFB Photographer

Empty fields all around central Illinois indicate the 2015 harvest season is coming to a close. Excess rain in June caused concern early in the growing season, but did it make a big dent in corn or soybean yields?

WJBC host Terry James catches up with McLean County grain farmer, Gerald Thompson to find out how the soggy summer and dry fall factored into  the end results for this year’s harvest on the Farm to Table segment episode 11.4.15.

Catch the “Farm to Table” segment every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. on WJBC Radio.

Audio Player

Farm Fresh Podcast: Soggy Summer, Dry Fall

Leave a comment

Empty fields all around central Illinois indicate the 2015 harvest season is coming to a close. Excess rain in June caused concern early in the growing season, but did it make a big dent in corn or soybean yields?

WJBC host Terry James catches up with McLean County grain farmer, Gerald Thompson to find out how the soggy summer and dry fall factored into  the end results for this year’s harvest on the Farm to Table segment episode 11.4.15.

Catch the “Farm to Table” segment every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. on WJBC Radio.

Farm Fresh Answers Podcast
Farm Fresh Answers Podcast
Farm Fresh Podcast: Soggy Summer, Dry Fall
Loading
/

The Friday Five: Harvest

Leave a comment

2013 soybeans, landscape

As you may have noticed by the waves of amber grain disappearing from farm fields, corn and soybean harvest is rolling in full force. For farmers, harvest brings the culmination of a full year’s worth of work and then some in planning, selecting, planting & caring for their crops.

For this week’s Friday Five, I though maybe we should take a look at five things harvest means on the farm:

  1. Long hours & hard work! Harvest is a time-sensitive task and when it’s time to go, farmers are usually in the fields from sun-up to sundown or longer as long as a) the weather’s fit b) the crop conditions are right and c) the equipment cooperates.  If you have friends or family who farm, you may notice they completely disappear from social events for a couple of months in the fall, as described by this chart from Illinois Corn Growers.
  2. Meals in the Fields:  Farmers may not stop for lunch or dinner during harvest (see above), so meals are often delivered to the fields. Take a look at some creative and delicious ways farm families stay fed during harvest with ‘How to Feed a Farmer’ posted on the Watch Us Grow blog and ‘Field Meals to Go’ from Katie Pratt’s Rural Route 2 Blog.
  3. Technology & equipment: Today’s family farmers harvest data, not just crops. Sophisticated computer and GPS technology give farmers a wealth of information to make decisions and adjustments for next year. Take a closer look  inside a combine with these photos from the blog Daddy’s tractor and get a glimpse of the bits and bytes of precision farm data  in this article from Business Insider. Or if you want to watch harvest in real time, check out this opportunity to watch it on Periscope!
  4. Danger: Farming is a dangerous occupation and harvest carries many hazards. Big machinery with lots of moving parts, dry corn stalks that can catch fire from a spark and even fatigue from the long hours can lead to accidents. Do your part to help keep farmers (and yourself) safe! Slow down & pass with caution when you meet equipment on the road. Check out this advice from blogger Celeste Harned for more tips to stay safe.
  5. Helping Hands: Farmers are a close-knit community.  Every year I see at least one story about farmers coming together to harvest crops for a neighbor in need. This week I saw three: One right here in McLean County, one near Champaign and another over by  Galva, Illinois.

To see more, search & follow #harvest15 on Facebook or Twitter.

What does harvest mean to you?

1 2 3