Ron Smith 1, Senior Content Director

September 23, 2016

24 Slides

Planting season in farm country is a time of expectations—hope that the weather is favorable for crop production, anticipation that markets will offer a profit, and faith that the Almighty will look kindly on your efforts.

Harvest time is a gut check, a dose of reality that obliterates any false hopes that this crop might be a little better than it has looked all season, or that, once again, against heavy odds, a few parcels of land will beat expectations, fill the bins and put enough money in the bank to do it all one more year.

Harvest is report card time, when the cows come home, the chickens come in to roost and the hay is made.

It’s my favorite time of the year—most years. When wheat harvest in May and June keep combines running until moisture or darkness chases them out of the field, it’s a good time to be in farm country. When grain carts have to hustle to keep up with combines during corn or grain sorghum harvest, farmers tend to smile a bit more. When vegetable harvest coincides with good weather and favorable prices, folks celebrate. And when fall weather is warm, dry and clear, cotton and peanut farmers work long hours to gather the fruits of a summer’s hard work.

In anticipation of another harvest season, here are a few of my favorite harvest time photos.

 

About the Author(s)

Ron Smith 1

Senior Content Director, Farm Press/Farm Progress

Ron Smith has spent more than 40 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension editor at Clemson University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English in 1975. He served as associate editor for Southeast Farm Press from 1978 through 1989. In 1990, Smith helped launch Southern Turf Management Magazine and served as editor. He also helped launch two other regional Turf and Landscape publications and launched and edited Florida Grove and Vegetable Management for the Farm Press Group. Within two years of launch, the turf magazines were well-respected, award-winning publications. Ron has received numerous awards for writing and photography in both agriculture and landscape journalism. He is past president of The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association and was chosen as the first media representative to the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Advisory Board. He was named Communicator of the Year for the Metropolitan Atlanta Agricultural Communicators Association. More recently, he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Smith also worked in public relations, specializing in media relations for agricultural companies. Ron lives with his wife Pat in Johnson City, Tenn. They have two grown children, Stacey and Nick, and three grandsons, Aaron, Hunter and Walker.

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