Life on the Farm: Fall

Life On the Farm

Fall Fun

A cool breeze wisps through the tall oak and pine trees. The mountain becomes an array of brilliant oranges, maroons, reds and yellows as the trees begin to hibernate in the cold air.  In the distance, you can hear a farmer chopping corn or cutting hay; maybe even a cow bawling to its new born baby that has walked for the first time. These are all common occurrences that signify the start of fall.

Fall is the busiest time of year for most farmers here in Botetourt County. All spring, farmers spent countless hours carefully choosing the crops to plant to provide for their herds, family’s and community. After a few months of growing, its harvest season, which means that farmers are working around the clock to harvest their crops. The green seedlings that have been sprinkling fields along the highway, have grown into massive corn plants with brilliant tassels and long ears. The small soybean plants have carefully spread out and grown into luscious green bundles. Fields that have been covered in a thick green blanket are being cut into neat windrows to soon be harvested into the third or fourth hay crop. On some farms, fall calving has begun and pasture fields are becoming full of new mothers and their babies. Fall is most certainly the busiest time of year for farmers, but it is the time of year we have all been looking forward to.

On my farm, we have been running around finishing a second and third cutting of hay, we have started to chop corn to make into cow feed, and our fall calving season has decided to start all at one time. Every year, we can usually get three of four cuttings of hay from our fields. Hay is a general term for grass, alfalfa, fescue, and other types of legumes and grasses that are used to feed cows. With adequate amounts of water and sunshine, hay will continue to grow in a field until the weather turns cold.

Corn season is like Christmas on the farm. Everyone is so excited and ready to get the corn out of the fields and into bags that there is a little “pep” in everyone’s step. In May and June, we planted the corn and now everyday is a race to get as much in the wagons as possible. The amount we receive will help to set the stage and tell us how much we will have for next year.

At the dairy, we have calves born year-round, however, every fall, we will have around 30 to 40 new babies. It’s an exciting time to see the cows have their babies. We can see some of our older cows become moms for the third or fourth time and see our young cows become moms for the first time. Watching the babies take their first steps is heartwarming to say the least.

That’s what’s going on in Life on the Farm.

–Courtney Henderson, special columnist to The Botetourt Bee