Farmers Helping Hawks

Today, I noticed Delta farmers were back in their fields trying to harvest their crops after the rain delay that ran most of September and into October. I witnessed combines in rice fields as I drove through the northern portions of Sunflower County along Hwy 49. I’m told the soybean crop has been heavily damaged by the wet conditions, and I’m sure the same could be said of cotton and corn.

Starting just south of Ruleville and extending almost to Parchman the roadway had what appeared to be an excessive amount of grain that either blew out of uncovered truck beds or else spilled through a not very tightly closed drop chute beneath one of the grain-hauling rigs.

I wasn’t sure if the grain was soybeans or corn, but the grains were too large to be wheat or rice. I wondered how much of the harvest was lost due to poorly maintained transportation equipment. If I were the farmer, watching bushels of my harvest being spilled along the roadside would have greatly depressed me.

Seeing the lost harvest of grain, I was also reminded of the significant amounts of cotton that is also lost in transporting it to a cotton gin. I have known industrious folks to pull a cotton sack down the side of a highway gathering cotton and reaping where they did not sow, but I’ve not heard of this in recent years. Anyway, I figure the Democrats have given away enough of the taxpayers money to the folks who used to try to scrape a living by gleaning or gathering along the roadside that they don’t have a work incentive anymore. Congress has plenty of varmints eager to rob Peter in order to pay Paul.

With huge quantities of grains being left on the roadsides for the field mice, the Delta can expect an overabundance of varmints this winter and plenty of food for the migratory birds of prey. I suppose the farmers’ loss is gain for the rodents and especially the hawks.