Each year around the dealership, we all talk about how we are ready for spring to arrive. It might be as simple as being tired of working in the cold, wet conditions or maybe it’s the mundane shop and office work that has everyone looking forward to the spring months. When spring arrives, gone are the days of scraping the frost off your window each morning. Gone are the days of drilling a water well and getting sprayed with a leaking hose when its 20 degrees out. BRRRRRR!!! Gone are the days of layering up so much you feel like the little brother in the movie “A Christmas Story.” Gone are the early sunsets that have you leaving the office in the dark.
Even though the New Year starts in January, I feel the New Year actually begins with spring. Spring is a time of new beginning for everything. A time when things spring to life. The growers are out checking their fields to see when and where they might be able to turn that first soil of year and put that first seed in the ground. As a farm kid, the smell of freshly turned soil was one of my favorites and it still is to this day.
It is much easier to get things moving on spring mornings than it was just a couple of months ago. Everyone is eager to get out of the yard and out to the job site because – let’s be honest – working outside beats any job in the office or shop. Those first really warm, sunny days are the beginning of that unavoidable “farmer’s tan,” which makes you appear to be wearing a white T-shirt at the pool.
It doesn’t matter if you are drilling a well, building a pivot, trenching wire or installing a pump, it only matters that you are beginning to make progress in getting the pivots up and running for the growers.
For me, spring is always a reminder of why we do what we do in the agriculture community! The joy of beginning a new business relationship with a grower who needs your help is one of my favorite things. Teaching a grower how to operate his new pivot or working with him on how to properly irrigate a crop. After some time passes, that new business relationship usually turns into the beginning of a new friendship, which is what being a part of the agriculture community is all about. You know that business relationship has turned to a friendship when the grower is texting you pictures of his pivot up and running and updates on the crop under the pivot.
As spring gets into full swing, it is fun to drive around and see all the old and new Valley® pivots up and running, watering the freshly sprouted corn and soybeans. It’s so great to know we have been part of changing the agriculture landscape and that we helped so many area growers make their farms more profitable.
The only drawback to spring is that once you get into the latter part of spring you realize it is coming to an end and summer is beginning. The summer heat and humidity is only a few weeks away and that shirt will no longer be wet from a spring shower, but more likely from sweating while working on a pivot in standing corn while its 95 degrees (I know you know what that feels like). And that will have you wishing for fall and winter to roll around, which starts the cycle all over again.
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Patrick Scates General Manager Scates Valley Inc. in Carmi, IL Patrick enjoys anything to do with agriculture and politics. When he isn't at work he loves spending time with his four children, Zoey, Maggie, and twin boys, Thomas and Henry. Any free time is enjoyed playing golf or spending time with the family at a cabin on a small lake in southern Illinois. |
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