After the Corn Harvest

All over my area of East Williamson County, Texas,  one can see field after field of corn traversing the Blackland Prairie acres.  After an unusually  wet winter, the ground readily provided area farmers, if they planted early enough, with good yields.  For those not versed in corn, when you see those parched-looking stalks dotting the countryside, don’t make the assumption that those are burned-up crops.  Most likely, you’re seeing a field that’s already been harvested.  But once the harvest is done, there is plenty to keep farmers, like the Raesz family, busy for a while yet.   Arnold Raesz, along with his sons, Shaun and Steven, and their cousin, 24-year-old Heath O’Banon, are still busy, clearing those fields, getting ready for the next planting.  This spring, S&S Raesz Farms planted 3700 acres of corn.   After harvest, they, like many farmers, get that farm equipment back in those fields, grinding  the used-up stalks and bits of corn, mulching it back into the soil, making it healthier for the next round of crops.  Not only that, but the combine also gathers grains of corn, which in turn is loaded onto trucks and stored in grain elevators, to be sold for feed grain.   Farmers, the good ones like the Raesz family, are the epitome of recycling.   I can’t say enough good things about their work ethic either.  Even as darkness enveloped the land, they continued their work, headlights shining on the tractors and combine.   These photos, and my story, are the subject of a little piece I did for the Williamson County Sun.