By Ben Simons
May in the Mohawk Valley is when the season finds its pace.
What started slowly in early spring has now picked up momentum. The fields are active, the barns are shifting, and across the region, farmers are fully back to work in a way that defines this time of year.
As we head full on into planting season, everything begins to move at once.
For many farmers this year, that includes finishing a job left behind from last fall. Combining, the process of harvesting corn, is still underway in some fields where crops were not able to be brought in before winter. An early snow cut harvest short, and with wet, muddy conditions that followed, many acres sat untouched through the colder months.
Now, as the ground begins to dry and equipment can move without getting stuck, farmers are returning to finish harvesting last year’s corn.
It is not typical, but it is part of farming in the Mohawk Valley. Conditions change, and the work adjusts with them.
And once that final pass is made, there is no delay.
Attention turns immediately to the next crop. Soil preparation is underway across the region as farmers get fields ready to plant corn silage, grain corn, and soybeans. Equipment is moving steadily, and every decision is made with timing in mind. The window for planting is short, and making the most of it matters.
This is where experience shows.
At the same time, livestock producers are stepping into one of the most visible signs of the season. Fences are being repaired, gates are opening, and animals are being turned out to pasture. Dairy heifers, beef cattle, horses, sheep, and goats are returning to green fields after a long winter.
It is a shift that changes the entire landscape. What was quiet and contained through the winter begins to open up.
May is not a waiting period. It is movement.
It is tractors in the fields, livestock in the pastures, and long days that stretch from early morning into evening. It is the point where everything begins happening at once, and where the direction of the growing season starts to take shape.
And while much of this work happens behind the scenes, it will not stay there for long.
In the weeks ahead, farmers markets across the Mohawk Valley will begin to open and expand, reconnecting communities with the farms that surround them. What shows up in the months ahead starts here, in these long spring days and the work being done right now.
Because in the Mohawk Valley, May is not the beginning. It is when spring is fully in motion.
