Travel out to the fields of Kansas during October and you’ll see them teeming with fall harvest. Combines chomp through the fields of corn, milo, soybeans and sunflowers eager to dump the bountiful crops into waiting trucks and grain carts.
Today’s green, red and silver monsters move through the fields with the urgency of tanks rolling through a war game. Across Kansas, farmers pilot these 12-ton behemoths as easily as the family car.
On gravel and blacktop roads tandem trucks and semis race back from the elevators so the machines can fill them up again. Fall harvest in Kansas marks that magical time of the year when producers of food and fiber reap what they have sown.
Seeing this bountiful production unfold underscores the importance of farming and ranching in Kansas. Our Kansas farmers – and their contemporaries across this great land – continually risk all that is theirs, hoping success is what each harvest and year will bring.
They work with the land, chemicals, computers and livestock. They must understand markets, people, soil crops and climate. Their livelihood is largely dependent upon factors, especially weather, that are oftentimes completely out of their control.
Still, farmers farm to succeed. They farm to grow and harvest crops and produce livestock. Farmers see their vocation not only as a business, but also as a way of life to preserve in good times and bad. They have their feet planted firmly in their soil. They are dedicated to the land and providing us with the safest, most wholesome food on the planet.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the average person consumes approximately 10 pounds or 160 bowls of cereal annually. When you couple that with approximately 22 pounds of red meat and poultry, it’s clear why Kansas harvest is an important time.
Today’s consumer has the option of using nearly 3,500 different corn products. These uses range from corn flakes to corn sweeteners. Corn and milo remain the top source of livestock feed.
Countless foods are made from today’s fall soybean crop. Some of these include crackers, cooking oils, salad dressings, sandwich spreads and shortenings. Soybeans are used extensively to feed livestock, poultry and fish.
Sunflowers from the Sunflower State can be used as an ingredient in everything from cooking to cosmetics and biodiesel cars. And as you probably already know, they’re a tasty snack – and healthy too.
So, if you have an opportunity to visit our state’s fertile fields this fall, think about the professionals who are busy providing the food we find on our tables each day. Tip your hat, raise an index finger above the steering wheel of your car or give a friendly wave to these producers of food and fiber who are dedicated to feeding you and the rest of the world.
John Schlageck writes for Kansas Farm Bureau.
