Audio: World of Agriculture:
This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend. A weekend that signals the unofficial start of summer. People grilling, going to the lake, swimming and even finishing up spring planting. It has been a very weird spring, but I felt it put into perspective by my mother of all people.
My family and I made yet another sojourn to Minnesota to take our ?big load? in the U-Haul. The trip which was postponed in April, because of 16 inches of snow which had fallen on our former home. No matter what people were doing this weekend, I heard the same reaction: ?IT?S HOT!! What happened to spring? We went from winter to summer?.
I made those same comments to my mother, who joined us in hauling things down to our new home around Des Moines. However, my mother came back with a statement which made me stop and think. ?You?re right. We had a bad spring. It wasn?t ideal, but have we all forgotten what a beautifully long fall we had last year??
She was right. We had nothing to complain about last fall. Upon doing research, the Des Moines region of the National Weather Service observed temperatures above 50 degrees as late as December 19th, 2017 and as early as February 18th, 2018. The first measurable snowfall did not fall in the region until Christmas Eve, 2017.
I realize last fall?s beautiful weather does nothing to help farmers this spring. However, it maybe would benefit us to reflect that Mother Nature has a way of making things balance. And it is in that balance that farmers find their success. So, as you finish up the spring fieldwork you should have finished a couple weeks ago, remember this spring may be the price we had to pay for the abundant time we had last fall. Maybe Mother Nature still has a reward planned for our patience this spring.
