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| Crops Look Great |
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| Opinion | |||
| Written by Kevin Gray | |||
| Wednesday, 22 July 2009 07:00 | |||
As my wife and I drove across Kansas to Santa Fe, N. M., for the July 4 weekend to see our son, I continually noted the abundance of dark green cornfields sitting next to the deeply rich, golden tones of recently cropped wheat fields. For as long as I can remember, I never recalled harvested wheat fields such a deep gold color or corn fields so green — they were more likely tall, emaciated white stalks starved of moisture, but nothing this abundantly green. As for the wheat fields, I began commenting to my wife, Diane, that I thought this was going to be a big crop this year. But what do I know? I grew up in a city and have spent the last three decades or longer living in a small town. That does not make me knowledgeable about agribusiness by any means. Even as a boy growing up in Virginia, the “Kansas Farmer” newspaper my grandmother subscribed to didn’t really do much for me. There were hardly any pictures, and the farm reports made little sense to me. Grandma, who lived in Anthony and Harper counties in Kansas, spent several years living in Richmond, Va., to help watch me during the daytime while my parents were working. Since our son, Kyle, left Kansas for the College of Santa Fe in 1997, Diane and I have made frequent trips by various routes: Interstate 70 to Colorado’s Interstate 25 and south to New Mexico; Kansas Highway 56 to McPherson, Great Bend, Dodge City and to the Oklahoma panhandle and into New Mexico; Kansas Highway 54 from Wichita to Liberal and then across the Oklahoma panhandle; and far south to Oklahoma City and west on Interstate 40 to New Mexico. Kansas Highway 56 is by far our favorite route. We can make the trip in a comfortable 14.5 hours. We saw Kansas’ first futuristic-looking wind farm of giant propellers just outside of tiny Montezuma. And in between the little burgs of Ensign, Montezuma, Copeland, Sublette, Satanta, Moscow, Hugoton, Rolla and Elkhart sit fascinating wooden train trestles. Feed lots and cattle trucks attack the senses. You know you’re approaching the cattle pens before you get there. As for the trucks, your best bet is to let them fly right on around you because they definitely maintain speed loaded or not. Last November, on our return from Thanksgiving in Santa Fe, the cold winds blew hard from the northwest. Just like out of the westerns — Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, and movies — I grew up with as a boy, the tumbleweeds didn’t just roll in front of my Dodge Dakota, they flew ghost-like through the air. I impaled a huge one south of Dodge City, my prize for that rough drive, and left it in my grill for weeks to come. On our return from the July trip, the Dodge City Daily Globe answered my wheat crop question with an editorial borrowed from the Salina Journal. “When we have a grand crop, like this year, implement dealers see new equipment moving off their lots. Bankers watch producers pay off loans and replenish bank accounts. Auto dealers, homebuilders and department stores feel the impact of an abundant harvest. So do their employees. This year’s bounty couldn’t come at a better time …” wrote the Salina Journal editorial writer. And so, let us hope that those beautiful green fields can boast the same plentiful harvest the golden ones already yielded.
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