What do grain farmers do in the winter?
I mean, there are no animals to care for, no growing crops, what could there possibly be to do besides take a vacation to some tropical island somewhere. When I signed up for this “crop farmer’s wife” role, that’s kind of how I thought it would be. When I learned that’s not how it is (for us anyway) I decided to get a few animals since we’re going to be here anyway.
Every farm is different, but on our farm, we all stick around in the winter to prep for the coming season. We’re hauling out grain every week, maintaining equipment, fixing broken things, cleaning up tree lines, fixing drainage tile, and for two weeks Josh traveled to meetings across the country for personal development. Every year we invest time and money in courses, seminars, etc that we’ve vetted to bring home valuable information for us to use on the farm in the future and to be up to date on certifications.
The guys are going through the planters with a fine-toothed comb making sure they’re ready for the upcoming season. I know there’s snow on the ground right now, but in one month we could be putting seeds in the ground depending on Mother Nature. Pretty soon we’ll be treating seed and making sure we’ve got everything in place so planting can go as smoothly as possible.
Crop farming in winter isn’t comparable to those caring for livestock, but we are able to stay busy. Farming in the off-season is just as important as our busier more exciting times of the year.
