The Incredible Logistics Behind Corn Farming

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

Select footage courtesy Getty and AP; Select imagery courtesy Geolayers; Select music courtesy Epidemic sound

[luxeproultimate]

If Sam made a video about the logistics of paper clip manufacturing in Uzbekistan I'd still watch it

[farmerj]

Im a Farmer and a professional midwesterner and when I clicked on this video, I expected misinformation and inaccurate terminology, I was severely wrong. You sir put your research into this video and I applaud you for that.

[NickVanRegenmorter]

As an iowa farmer, i wanna give you props. This is by far the best high level overview of how crop farming in the US works. Obviously its not nuanced (every farm is different) but as a high level overview i cant find anything wrong with how this was presented. Thank you.

[spicytuna]

My dad is a wheat farmer. We're from Oklahoma, and our cash crops are wheat and cotton. The process is largely the same, but the seasons are flipped. It's mid-September so they're planting right now. They'll water the wheat over fall, but the rain usually starts to come back around this time of year and through October. It'll snow some over winter and it'll get some water that way. They'll also buy some young cattle to turn out to the wheat fields to eat on it. Their poop is valuable as it'll help with fertilization and moisture over winter. The rain comes back between March and May. As it does and they prepare for harvest, they'll sell their cattle (which will have grown over winter) and earn a little side money. Then they'll harvest in late May or early June, depending on how warm the winter was. A warmer winter means an earlier harvest. It might still be raining a lot in May so there's a huge risk associated. If you wait too long, you can't harvest the crop, but it's also impossible to harvest a muddy field.

Harvest is absolutely the hardest part of the year for him. He will go 3-4 weeks in late spring working from 4 am to 12 am the following morning. As soon as it's time, it's a race against the clock. A lot of older farmers who can't really do it themselves will outsource the harvest a lot of times. I've talked to guys all the way down from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba looking for work. Most of them come from Montana or the Dakotas, though. It's very lucrative. My pop is 50, still young enough to do it all himself.

There's a near constant battle with the weather. You want it to rain, but there's a very small range of acceptable rainfall amounts. Additionally, our rainy seasons often come with severe weather. A bad hailstorm can destroy a crop. You can't get too emotional when it happens. All you can do is take the insurance money and cross your fingers that it works out next year.

May/June and September/October are his busy months. He gets all the other time to just piddle. He's an excellent welder so he'll go do welding jobs around the area. He'll maintain the cattle otherwise. There's not much to do in late fall, but once it starts regularly freezing (usually after Christmas), the cows will need the ice broken on the water tanks so they can drink. He also digs cattle ponds to stay busy during the off season.

During the winter, there's not a lot to do outside of breaking ice so he spends his days watching football on TV, setting up some cans downrange to practice his shot, or hunting. Once in a great while, they'll hunt deer, but his choice is usually quail or pheasant. It's a pretty comfortable life, but not one I want. I work in finance and prefer this to farming. I drove the grain cart during harvest and decided at 16 that it wasn't for me. But he loves what he does, and it's always really cool to see people doing what they love.

[undercoverduck]

Loving these kinda "hey have you ever considered the complexity behind this everyday human activity? let me blow your mind about it" videos

[jb]

When people talk about farmers being uneducated, I bring up stuff like this. Remaining competitive in this market, especially with a family farm, is really goddamn hard.

[TimeBucks]

appreciate you showing how farming actually happens

[qhoeger]

He forgot about the drying of the grain on the farmers property. Most farmers in Iowa have their own grain bins for drying. It's not that common that they bring it to the coop right after harvesting. When I harvest I store it myself since it actually saves me tens of thousands and it gives me the ability to sell loads whenever I want allowing me to have reliable income when I need it. Plus I can also monitor my moisture levels and make it perfect before bringing it in.

[AgriStudios]

As someone in the ag industry, I commend you for making this video! Considering your non-ag background, the level of detail in covering the entire supply chain process is incredible, and it shows the world just how advanced this industry has become.

[MasterBaker]

That derecho in 2020 was no joke, it flattened more than 10 percent of the corn in the state, but more importantly it flattened almost all of the corn in the counties it hit hardest, deeply impacting their local economies in a year that had already experienced unbelievable volatility.

[Kaiserland]

As an Iowan with family that has farmed the same land for over 150 years, I appreciate this video's look at the complexity, hard work, and thin margins that define this essential industry. Also, that derecho you mentioned that hit Iowa in 2020 was DEVASTATING. Cedar Rapids, for example, lost almost 700, 000 trees, which was 70% of the trees in the city, and suffered around $60 million in damage.

[dhagen]

I was born and raised on a farm near Mason City, IA. Farming has come a long way! I have a treasured picture of my grandfather driving a team of four horses in a field. It wasn’t easy in those days! I also remember when my dad would pick corn by the cob with a corn picker, then store the cobs in a corn crib, only to auger it out later on, “shell it, ” and take it by tractor and wagon to the elevator. This always involved my dad and about four or five other farmers. They always helped each other! Great memories! Thanks for the video!

[PikeProductions]

So glad Sam decided to show the farmers some love. Farming is way more hi-tech and complex than most people give it credit for

[MegaBomboloni]

Very good content made. Most of the farming channels doesnt explain our job as great as you did, i think this video will educate people and explain how complex farming is to people who dont know about it

[aidencrawford]

If this tells you how much farming has evolved, my great grandfather used to make a living picking 100 bushels of corn per DAY by hand. Nowadays we can harvest 5000 bushels per HOUR with our combine

[michaelnichelson]

I used to be contracted to one of these seed companies. I will tell you that the on-the-ground sales reps that travel to each farmer day after day have a huge influence. These megacorps employ a large number of mostly male people to travel to these rural farmers and initiate a company relationship with the farm. They also tend to provide 3 things to the reps: a phone, a computer, and a Ford f-150. Every rep told me that it had to do with the seats and infotainment centers, but I think it was the person running the sales division. These guys know all of the people and all of their competition. So much so that it was not uncommon that they would work for 3-5 years and then get scalped by one of, now, 3 major competitors in the market. Yes, it has consolidated that much.

[carter]

Great video. My grandpa farmed just a little over an hour from Bancroft. He broke his back to form a sizable property (three farms put together), lasted through the farm crisis of the 80s, and only retiring when he developed Alzheimer’s. I will always remember his sacrifice to provide for our family.

[Homer-OJ-Simpson]

OMG, do more videos like this! Most farming videos are about the specifics of certain farming tasks but this was a great overview on the economics and logistics.

[Grimmtoof]

I grew up on a sheep/cattle farm in the Scottish Highlands and it’s fascinating to see a very different type of faming. I was struck by how flat everything is, around here completely flat land basically doesn’t exist. Also the complete lack of fences around the fields, again I’m used to there being lots of livestock farms around so even if a farmer doesn’t have animals themselves they’d need to keep other animals out.

[tommyfrerking]

My grandparents had a farm just south of Bancroft in Calhoun County and they worked it for decades. I was never a farmer but I've always had a great appreciation for those who produce the food we consume. Thank you for being so detailed in the process of farming, both the technical and the personal side. Given what's happening in Ukraine right now, which is one of the largest grain producers in the world, I feel that it's important for everyone to know what goes into it all.