By Farmer Ben
By the time October rolls around in the Mohawk Valley, it might look like the farming season is starting to wind down. The mornings are colder, the days are getting shorter, and a lot of the fields that were green all summer have changed pretty quickly.
But on the farm, there is still plenty to do.
October is one of those months where you are trying to finish one season while already getting ready for the next one. There are still crops to harvest, fields to work, equipment to keep moving, and plenty of jobs that need to get done before winter settles in.
For vegetable growers, there can still be quite a bit coming out of the ground. Potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, winter squash, pumpkins, and other cool-weather crops can keep farmers busy well into fall. Some vegetables actually handle the cooler temperatures pretty well, which means the first chilly nights do not necessarily mean the end of the harvest.
Around the Mohawk Valley, October also means corn harvest for a lot of farms. Depending on the operation, corn may be chopped for silage or harvested for grain. Soybeans are being combined too, and farmers are watching the weather closely because once you get into fall, good harvesting days can become harder to come by.
You might get a stretch of beautiful, dry October weather and make a lot of progress. Then rain comes through and everything stops.
That is farming.
You learn pretty quickly that the calendar does not always decide when the work gets done. The crop and the weather usually have more to say about it.
While all of that harvesting is going on, farmers are also thinking about the soil they will need next spring. Fall is an important time for getting fields ready for another growing season. That can mean planting cover crops, spreading manure, working ground, or taking care of other fieldwork before everything freezes up.
Cover crops might not be something most people notice when they drive past a field, but they can do an important job. Instead of leaving soil bare through the winter, farmers can plant crops that help protect the ground and hold soil in place. What looks like a quiet green field in November may actually be part of the plan for next year’s crop.
That is one thing about farming that people do not always see. You are almost never working for just today.
When you are planting in the spring, you are thinking about harvest. When you are making hay in July, you are thinking about feeding animals in January. And when you are working fields in October, you are already thinking about what needs to happen next spring.
There is still plenty happening at farm stands this time of year too. Pumpkins and winter squash are out, along with apples, potatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, and other fall produce. It is a different kind of abundance than August, but it is still one of the best times of year to eat what is grown around here.
And of course, livestock chores do not change just because the growing season is coming to an end. Cows still need to be milked, animals need to be fed, and barns need to be cleaned. At the same time, farmers are making sure there is enough feed stored away and getting barns, water systems, equipment, and everything else ready for colder weather.
There is always one more thing you would like to get done before winter.
October can feel like a race sometimes. You know the cold weather is coming, you know the daylight is disappearing a little earlier every night, and you know eventually the ground is going to freeze. So when the weather cooperates, you keep going.
That is why you may still see tractors and equipment out in the fields long after most people think harvest season is over.
The fields may look quieter than they did a couple of months ago, but there is still a lot happening out there. October is about finishing what you can, protecting what you have, and getting ready for whatever the next season brings.
Around here, the work does not really end when harvest does. It just changes.
Before long, the fields will be covered in snow. But for now, there is still work to do.
