Our Rural Roots

Jennifer Campbell, Progressive Farmer Contributor

As we headed into October and harvest, I thought back to a sweltering August day -- 90-something degrees -- when I took the photo accompanying this article. We'd been cleaning out bins for days, moving last year's crop one truckload at a time to make room for the one to come.

I take thousands of pictures every year, but some just speak to me. This one did. While the auger hummed and corn streamed into the trailer, my son stood there not just focused on getting the load out but looking across the field at this year's corn. Watching. Checking. Evaluating. Thinking ahead.

There's so much symbolism in it -- or maybe you'd call it parallel imagery. On one side, last year's crop is in motion; on the other, this year's crop is still rooted in place. It's the two ends of the farming cycle captured together, with the farmer standing right where every farmer always is -- in the middle.

There's a moment in farming when time overlaps in a way that doesn't happen in most other jobs. One foot planted in last year's work, the other in the promise -- or gamble -- of what's still growing.

The past and the future are never far apart. Corn from last year's harvest was headed down the road to become feed, fuel or food. Every pass through the field, every fight with weeds, every prayer for rain -- it was all in that stream of grain and in that growing crop.

Farming doesn't pause so you can bask in the finished work. While we're grateful for the harvest, we're already working toward the next. We're always both in and somewhere in-between -- wrapping up one while laying the groundwork for the next. That's the rhythm of farm life.

Every acre. Every bushel. Every season. Connected.

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