With harvest wrapped, equipment stored and the ground frozen, it leaves the question – what’s next?
For Northern Soy Marketing (NSM) board members Mike McCranie and Patrick O’Leary, it’s go time.
“We always see it as our quiet time, but it’s also our time where we can continue to catch up,” Minnesota farmer O’Leary said. “I don’t know if it ever gets quiet or if it’s just some more free time to do some things in the wintertime and maybe a little mental health break once in a while.”
It might be frigid outside, but farmers continue working in the warmth of shops, office spaces or they continue to brave the cold.
The McCranie family in South Dakota is currently working on an expansion project. Mike’s two sons, Matthew and Mitchell, returned to work full time on the farm a number of years ago, and he felt a new workshop was needed for the longevity of the farming operation. With fieldwork done, the McCranies can focus on finishing the inside of the shop.
“Once that’s complete, the equipment will be put into the shop, and we go through pretty much everything,” McCranie said. “We prioritize the planting equipment first and then if we have time through the winter, we’ll start working on the harvesting equipment.”
The ‘fun stuff’
Both McCranie and O’Leary are both making plans for planting season already, while continuing to catch up on other projects.
“It’s that time of the year where we’re really focused on preparation for spring,” O’Leary said. “We’re in the process of making decisions on seed and fertilizer, if we haven’t done that already and we’ve been working on catching up on bookwork. It’s a mix of a lot of things, whether it’s the management side, buying inputs, making decisions on inputs, all that fun stuff that we do every winter.”
Winter also means meeting time. For O’Leary, this is meetings for his role as a director for Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) and the United Soybean Board. McCranie continues filling his director role on the U.S. Soybean Export Council.
“We’re (MSR&PC) really looking at not only our own operation but looking at that we’re making good decisions on how we’re going to invest the soybean checkoff money wisely,” he said. “That’s part of what goes on in the wintertime.”
MSR&PC is a member of NSM, along with South Dakota Soybean Research & Promotion Council and Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.
Winter brings a breath of crisp air for farmers after harvest just in time to start preparing to do it all again.
