The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
I don’t need a calendar to tell me that fall has arrived. I can smell it in the air. I love the fall season, not just for the beauty of the changing colors of trees and fields, but more for the subtle smells of the season that only a farmer appreciates.
The smell of fresh corn silage pouring out of the silage box is the first sign that fall is coming. The crisp blue skies, dotted with floating puffy white clouds surround the tops of the silos as I gaze upward for the signal to shut everything down because the silos are full. Most people today use cell-phones to let everyone know how much more feed can be unloaded. We don’t have cell phones. The signal that gets my attention is a fork full of silage hurling down on the chopper box from above. It works.
For me the smell of silage only gets better with age. After the gassy smell dissipates and the silage starts to ferment, the faint sweet smell of apples fill the silo room. It’s kind of fun mixing feed when everything smells so good. Makes me wish I had my family’s cider press up here in Minnesota. Nothing tastes better at this time of year than fresh pressed apple juice, unless it is a fresh apple pie cooling on the window ledge.
Diesel trucks are rumbling past our house as the potato and edible bean harvests hit prime time. By the looks of the trucks, it appears to be a great year for the area potato farmers. With plentiful summer rains and now cool fall weather, the harvest should put a smile on their faces.
Wood shavings is another smell of fall to some dairy farmers. It means a road trip to Madison, WI for World Dairy Expo. With the silage harvest completed, many may be able to slip away for a quick trip to see some of the most beautiful cattle around.
Mark always marvels at the milking cow classes and mumbles that he would love to have a barn full of those udders greet him in the morning.
This is only the beginning of the smells of fall. You know the next round will be coming as soon as the temperatures drop.
When the crisp morning air pops your eyes wide open as you walk out to the barn in the dark, you know the busy time is right around the corner.
The roar of the grain dryers will fill farm yards across the area in a couple of weeks.
I think the smell of corn drying or beans roasting tell me that fall is coming to a quick close. It is a warm comforting smell that marks the end another growing season.
Of course the end of the growing season wouldn’t be complete without a celebration.
As we gather around bonfires with friends and families this fall, the smoke always following us around the fire regardless of the wind direction, we can take in the smells of fall and smile. It has been another good year.
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As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.
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