Woes of a Dry Harvest

There are more concerns of drought weather than just crunchy grass.  For many farmers, harvest is affected in one way or another.  When its extremely dry and unseasonably warm, the crops dry down especially fast, causing concern for 1) the grains get dry and brittle, cracking or even turning to dust as they're combined and 2) the moisture content is so low that the yield numbers turn out low, as moisture adds volume.  On the plus side, there is little to no money spent on drying the crops for storage.

Another scary disadvantage to this kind of weather are field or equipment fires.  Combines and tractors are big, hot pieces of equipment.  And big hot equipment puts off heat and occasional sparks.  If the heat or sparks land on the crops that are already brittle and dry or on the collection of crop dust accumulated on the equipment, disaster is sure to follow.  We heard reports earlier this week that Wapello County has already had nine combine fires this season, with much of the season yet to go; that is WAY up from the average, which is nearly zero. 

Last week, we noticed a thick cloud of smoke coming from just north of us.  We thought it was far enough away to not affect us at all, but to be sure (honestly, it was more out of curiosity), I jumped in the car and did a little investigating.  A combine had caught on fire just a couple miles north of Josh's parents' place, on the edge of Eddyville and thankfully across the river.  The combine is a goner, and the ruins are a reminder to be extra careful this season!