harvest II

last week i discovered that the bean field next to the supermarket had been harvested...rather inefficiently...but harvested all the same...today i found farmer brown working overtime in the field behind the big box stores...the combine and tractor were both out working on a sunday morning..so i stopped to compare events...the combine strips the kernels from the cobs and spits the remnants out onto the field where the detritus forms a mulch and slowly puts the twelve pounds of nitrogen per ton of cobs back into the soil...a small payback for what was mined from the filed in the way of nutrients...nutrients that were supplemented by anhydrous ammonia fertilizer...twelve pounds a ton won't close a nutrient cycle...there were ears and part ears the combine missed out in the field...they were difficult to spot in the shredded husks so i likely missed some..it wasn't until you got out to the berm and the street with its better contrast that the real level of efficiency in the harvest came out...the berm and the street were littered with cobs, husks and...lots of loose kernels...all over the street...which leads me to believe they are all over the field as well..waiting to be gleaned by birds and the odd deer...they may not all be gleaned however...and if a field of beans goes in here next season we may get to observe some volunteer industrial corn...always a treat...hybrid...gmo...it is always instructional to have a look at what it produces in the way of ears..if any.