Soybean Harvest

This soybean field is right near the cemetery on what I call the Route 3 Cut-Through Road, aka Windsor Road. I think. (Such details elude me. Every minute of every day. That's why I make up my own names like Route 3 Cut-Through Road.)

Driving by I saw this combine harvesting the beans and quickly turned into the cemetery. Grabbing my camera, which is definitely not what people usually take on a walk through a cemetery, I crept up to the edge of this field, aimed carefully and took several pictures. The poor guy driving the combine saw me. The people who were visiting their dearly departed loved ones saw me. It wasn't as if I could just turn around and pretend that I was photographing something else - because what would that be? A plastic flower arrangement? A headstone, perhaps?

(Never mind that there are no headstones at this particular cemetery. There is a mausoleum, though. Why is it that the thought of being stuffed in a mausoleum causes me more thoughts of claustrophobia than being buried in a casket in the ground? Really, is there any escaping either one? And what difference does it make if I'm no longer alive? Why would I need to escape? These are the sorts of thoughts that preoccupy me when I'm off my medication bored at work.)

Anyway, this was taken about a week or so before Hurricaneaster Ida, the storm that would never end. The wet fall has put a hurting on crop harvesting, and many soybean fields have gone to waste. "Put a hurting on" is a very technical farming term which means "negatively impacted."

But please don't take my word for it. You'll be better off that way. Here's what the Richmond Times Dispatch said recently:

Last week's torrential rainfalls have caused damage and delays to some Virginia farm crops, but the extent of losses is unknown, some agriculture experts said yesterday.

Several crops that were recently planted or still in the fields were hurt by the widespread, three-day deluge, including winter wheat, barley and soybeans, said Molly Payne Pugh, executive director of the Virginia Grain Producers Association.

"There is definitely going to be damage," Pugh said. "I don't have a good feel for how much yet. Right now, we are assessing."

...The state's soybean and cotton crops also are a concern now because the rain further delayed an already late harvest.

Soybeans, a $134 million crop for Virginia farmers in 2008, generally have had a good year in 2009, with yields estimated at around 37 bushels per acre, higher than the 32 to 33 bushels-per-acre trend of recent years, said Wade Thomason, an extension grains specialist at Virginia Tech.

But wet weather during the spring planting season made the crop late, and more delays will reduce yields.

Yesterday it rained all day long. Guess what they were calling for last night? Rain. Winds from the northeast, 20-30 miles per hour. Today? Rain. Winds from the northeast. Everything from the northeast. Northeast this, northeast that.

Poor soybeans.

How has your fall/autumn been? Has it been rainier/dryer/hotter/cooler than usual?

If you owned a soybean crop and most of it could not be harvested due to the weather, what would you do? Do farmers have insurance to cover lost soybean crops?

Somebody please explain. Thank you.