Conversations in the cab: A harvest time perspective

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

I’ve never seen dust swirl the way I did on Friday, sitting inside Ron Stewart’s combine. From the cab, Stewart watched for the wayward rocks that occasionally appear among soybean rows, and told me about the talk surrounding a potential new farm bill.

“This last one was really a challenge to understand, and now we’d have a whole new one to start over on,” Stewart told me.

It was my first combine ride, and Stewart’s first time hosting as part of Conversations in the Cab, a Floyd County Farm Bureau initiative.

Stewart is one of several area farmers opening their cabs up to conversations with community residents this harvest season. Members of the Farm Bureau can be reached through Heather Gifford, 641-228-3742, to set up a time to ride along the harvest.

I rode with Stewart for about an hour in his soybean fields. His wife was nearby, pulling the grain cart Stewart would periodically unload into.

He has been farming since he graduated high school. After spending some years working with dairy cows and other livestock, his family now focuses on row crop fields.

“How many people does it take to finish a harvest?” I asked.

“It depends on how much of a hurry you’re in,” Stewart replied. His two sons help when they can around their work schedule.

Our conversation covered a lot of ground — the farm bill, strip- and no-till, cover crops, water quality, family ties. As we spoke, a computer monitor in his cab offered Stewart instant feedback on his soybean yields.

From my seat, I saw the silhouette of the Valero ethanol plant in front of us, and two or three windmills just farther off. Then Stewart spun the combine back to start harvesting a new row, and in the distance, we saw a neighbor laying cover crop seeds in their field.

That’s a practice the Stewarts are using on about 400 acres this year. After the harvest ends, they’ll strip-till some of the fields, and lay cereal rye over the winter to hold off erosion until the spring.

“Do you enjoy this time of year?” I asked.

“It’s both,” he said after a brief pause. Before we scheduled my ride, Stewart had to scramble to respond to a surprise series of broken parts.

“It starts out enjoyable, because you’re seeing what you did all year long pay off. … It’s nice to see what works, and hopefully most things do,” Stewart said. “After about three weeks, you’re ready for it to be done.”

Later that afternoon, Stewart was expecting a visit from nursing home residents who had farmed their entire lives. For them, a cab ride would be a trip down memory lane.

That won’t be the case for much of the growing generations as Iowa’s population shifts.

Census data from 2000-2010 showed a 3.5 percent drop in population within Floyd County, while my home region of Warren County — just south of Des Moines — saw a growth of 13.7 percent, like most of it’s central Iowa neighbors. Polk County saw a rise of 15 percent; Dallas County saw a staggering jump of 62.3 percent.

The only counties outside of the state’s center that see comparable growth are Linn and Johnson, home to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Most Iowans, like me, haven’t grown up watching crop dust swirl through a combine cab’s window.

Farming here in northeast Iowa, Stewart remembers his sons joining him in the cab when they were young. Last year his grandson sat by his side on or the floor during harvest days, watching or napping as Stewart worked.

“I think that gets somebody interested when they’re young, when they can go,” Stewart said. “It’s nice to watch. You kind of forget how in awe you were when something is new and different.”