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It's harvest season!
Tuesday night I watched three combines harvest the soybeans from our fields, and it made me feel like a little kid in a candy shop. During the spring, I worried and waited for small green shoots to push through the earth. Once they started pushing through the ground, the waiting game began. First, lines of small green shoots appeared growing in straight lines. Then these lines began reaching for the sky, growing by inches until their green leaves canopy over and create fields of solid green.
Throughout the summer, these green fields sway with the wind, absorb the rain, and hog all the sunshine. As summer begins to wane into fall and the leaves start to change, the fields go from emerald green to buttercup yellow.
Soon, just like the leaves on the trees fall, those buttercup yellow soybean leaves begin to fall as well, leaving brown stalks with their fuzzy brown pods. On a cool fall evening, if you're lucky, you can stand out in the field and watch the deer graze, hearing the pods rustle like the sound of beads in maracas as the deer swish by.
Then, one afternoon the sound of machinery begins to arrive. First, it's the big combines themselves running down the road with a rumble of heavy machinery. Then it's the trucks with the long trailers, pulling the headers. Then it's the grain cart and the tractors and finally, it's the semi truck and trailer. Suddenly, the once quiet field is bustling with men, equipment and activity as combines, tractors and men begin their harvest dance in the field.
And a dance it is; combines move in straight lines to harvest rows and rows of beans, while a tractor and grain cart move into position so those monster combines can unload their golden beans. Then once empty, the combines continue their straight lines, never once breaking stride while the grain cart cuts across the field to empty its precious cargo into the semi trailer. This dance continues for hours as dust flies from the combines bathing everything in a sepia light and the trees lend their color in the background. A distinct whirring sound with an unlying rumble provides the soundtrack to this dance; a distinct sound that symbolizes success for farmers.
It feels like an old-time photograph.
As evening falls, the dance becomes hidden by darkness but doesn't stop. Instead of seeing the machinery, white and yellow lights, solid and flashing pick up the dance as the rumble continues. Late into the evening, under the dissolving full Hunter's moon, the rumbles stop and the lights slow down, beginning to finish up.
The last bushels of golden beans flow into the grain cart, destined for the semi-trailer. Combines pull up to the trailers, dropping their headers, and heading down the road, destined for a small rest before the sun rises tomorrow to begin again. Men get into the trucks, heading to drop off equipment, and then home for a few hours of sleep and an early alarm that signals it's time to go again.
The next morning, the fields are bare, and the 2026 harvest is complete. Now it's time to hope that the commodity markets cooperate and these beans earn a good price for the farm. Soon, those fields will be covered in snow and quiet once again. Through the long winter months, while the fields appear empty important work is actually happening. The freeze/thaw cycle creates air pockets that break up compaction and also pushes rocks and crop residue toward the surface. Microbes continue to work, but slowly, dissolving leftover crops while earthworms dig deeper into the ground, breaking up soil. So while the fields may seem tranquil and quiet, the work has moved underground. Soon, the cold winds of winter will begin to warm and spring will arrive, With the arrival of spring, the fields will once again be bustling as we begin the cycle over again.
Clemson is a member of the Trumbull County Farm Bureau and completed her Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University. She and her family have a farm in Mecca.