There are comparisons one can make between raising children and raising crops. You invest a lot in each, one more emotionally, the other more financially, although there are overlaps in those. You spend time thinking about both, nurturing, and caring for them. Maybe it’s not quite blood, sweat, and tears. But for sure it’s a lot of sweat. Some tears with children.

For children and crops, you want them to finish well. For your kids, that means completing an education, moving into a meaningful career, perhaps in a sound relationship. For your corn and soybeans, you want a nice, slow maturing in September, with gradually cooling temps and the right amount of rain to fill out the ears and pods.

As of this writing, forecasts for the right kind of September are nowhere to be found. It is very hot and very dry as far ahead as weather models can see. The ag media is filled with concern about a crop that is challenged already and now looks to finish poorly, under extreme stress.

The question is, will this crop be drying, or will it be dying?

If this crop is going to finish poorly, what if we continue our comparison between crops and children?

This is the equivalent of your kid dropping out of school with no plan and a bunch of debt to play video games and drink tequila, moving in with some floozy with tattoos on her forehead. It’s not what you and your wife envisioned when you brought the little bundle home from the hospital.

Back to crops, this one never had it easy. April was unfriendly, so no early planting. May opened up to planting. But then way too much rain fell, drowning out a lot that was in the ground. Finally, planting and replanting finished up by the end of May. Then came months of small rain and big heat.

This is our third year in a row of droughty conditions. Thanks to deep prairie soils around here and modern genetics, yields have surprised. We’ll see if that’s true again. Farmers have invested all the money, decision-making, and time on a tractor, and now we wait and see what harvest brings.

With all this attention to what September will bring, finishing strong has been on my mind. It is important in any task. A poor finish can undo a lot of good work.

In sports, coaches emphasize playing hard to the last play or pitch. You can win games by having a reservoir of energy that your opponent doesn’t. Wearing them down at the end can mean more than talent. That all starts with conditioning long before you pick up a ball. Whether it’s sprinting in the gym or lifting in the weight room, the point is to be faster and stronger at the end of a game that might be played months in the future.

It looks likely, not certain, that the Twins will make it into the playoffs this October. It has been a season as highly variable as corn on a hilly field. But if you follow these things, you know the Twins are in the right division. By “right division” I mean an exceedingly weak one. You play the cards you’re dealt, so we’ll take that.

Twins fans can be forgiven for looking at playoffs with trepidation if not outright dread. The Twins have lost eighteen straight playoff games. That is impossible, but there it is. It is the polar opposite of finishing strong. But I am convinced the Twin will win a playoff game in my lifetime. And the Vikings will win a Super Bowl. Ahem.

Businesses want to finish the year strong. Depending on your fiscal year, that often means a push for sales coinciding with the crazed holiday shopping season. A good December can go a long way toward making up for a mediocre eleven months up to then.

Really, every task we do benefits from finishing well. If we get sloppy at the end with the trim work and detailing, the best project can be reduced to mediocre. Then there’s cleanup. Putting tools away and sweeping up the mess is simply playing hard till the final whistle.

Finally, we can look at the big picture, to what matters most. We want to finish well here on Earth. We’ve all heard the words from Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” We are to keep up the good fight and push hard in the race till the end.

If we are blessed to live a long life, we know we will not be “racing” in our later years. There will be physical decline. We will be slower, perhaps not even able to walk, much less run at the end. But we can and should be kinder, more thoughtful, and more compassionate. The wisdom of years should compel that in us. We can truly finish strong in that way.

Addendum

There was a tragic accident this last week in Sleepy Eye. A young man was killed. Our hearts and prayers go out to Austin Trebesch’s family and all those who knew him. The sadness cannot be adequately expressed in words, although that is all we have. An entire community feels the pain of the loss of someone so young. For the farming community it is the loss of a piece of our future.

We occasionally get reminders of how dangerous this work around big machines is. The reminders come in these awful moments. The people who grow our food, build our roads, transport our goods, along with those who maintain and repair the equipment live with risks. We take that for granted. Till one Tuesday morning when we don’t.

Godspeed Austin.

— Randy Krzmarzick farms on the home place west of Sleepy Eye, where he lives with his wife, Pam.