The season of harvest is a season for festivities and joy. The crops that were sewn and tended with hope are gathered, cleaned, sold, and the profit is measured. This year saw many dashed hope as the summer grew hotter and dryer, and the harvest was short of expectation for many. Whether your crop was grains, animals, or just your garden, we can all agree this year was an exceptional struggle for everyone involved in a life of harvest. Thus, the anticipated joyful season has left many with simple relief that the struggle for this season is over, and a cautious measure at the “next year” outlook.

Going into a dry fall, with an unexpected winter creates hard decisions for those looking to next years plans. The goal is to never put more into the planting and tending than you will get from the harvest. Even in spite of natures turbulence, the farmer has hope for the rule of harvest to win out in the end because planted seed will always multiply. It may not multiply as much on a harsh year, but it will multiply nevertheless. Many terrible years where the profit hasn’t been met still manage to produce. “The Show Must Go On” and the farmer continues the “next year” way of life.

National Farmers Day is October 12th of every year. If there were ever anyone deserving of thanks besides our first responders it is our farm and ranchers. Without them our community would die, as well as our state. They deserve so much appreciation that they have a Farmers Appreciation Week in September every year.

The 2020 statistics for Montana found at http://www.nass.usda.gov claim that 62% of the land in Montana is in farms and ranches. Agriculture is Montana’s number one industry to this day, producing more than gas, oil, mineral, wood and paper combined, and it isn’t even close. While this creates a big revenue, the average profit margin is rather small for most farm and ranches. In Musselshell county, 40% of our agriculture producers are 65 years or older. There are many more interesting statistics you can find on the nass.usda.gov website. Musselshell county produces a wide variety of things and accounts for one percent of everything produced by agriculture in our state. That seems very small, but most counties produce under five percent, there are many counties. When you consider the age of most ag folks and the fact that they are producing the most revenue for our state, you soon realize that the future requires that the next generation begin to step up or Montana will very shortly lose its main way of life and culture that many of us grew up in.

Please remember to thank your local farmers on Tuesday, October 12th. As you enjoy your steak or burger, consider the one that helped produce that meat might well have been your neighbor. The greatest testament to a community doing well is when it can support itself. Montana is one of the most financially healthy states. This is in no small part to the Agricultural community and the culture of a people who understand that you always reap what you sew.