Humbling Harvest

Local wheat producers?and all of us who benefit from their success?have a lot to be thankful for as this year?s record harvest nears conclusion. With 20 percent of crop still in the field as of Monday morning, Cooperative Grain & Supply reports it has already exceeded last year?s excellent yield by more than 14 percent, and has surpassed the most recent five-year average by nearly 50 percent.

This year?s crop faced several weather scares along the way, but without question we have been tremendously blessed from start to finish. You don?t have to travel very far west to hear a different story. Reports from drought-riddled western Kansas indicate that in some cases 90 percent of the wheat crop never made it to harvest; the surviving 10 percent was hardly worth cutting.

Even last Thursday, amid the throes of harvest, producers here largely were spared from the severe thunderstorm that delivered up to 90 mph winds and driving rain to neighboring counties to our immediate west and south. We have some of the best grain producers in the world living in our county, but most will tell you they can do only so much to grow and harvest even an average crop, much less one of the bumper variety.

This week we celebrate Independence Day, honoring the birth of our nation and its freedoms. Perhaps this year we should celebrate Dependence Day, too, humbly acknowledging that every good and perfect gift is the providence of a Divine hand. Thankfulness to God and generosity toward others are our most appropriate responses. ?DR

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