Autumn means harvest for area farmers and the task of reaping millions of bushels of corn and soybeans is well underway.

Lifelong farmer Rick Boesche said the corn harvest involves three people.

One person drives the combine and another drives a grain cart, which collects the corn from the combine; the third person drives a truck which deposits the grain in bins, he said.

Boesche farms about 1,300 acres south of DeKalb.

After harvest, fields must be prepared for winter. Cornfields are tilled and allowed to freeze and thaw throughout the winter.

Soybean fields have nothing done to them, Boesche said. Fields in need of fertilizer have it applied after the harvest.

Paul Taylor has harvested corn and soybeans since 1971.

He said he has seen changes in technology since he began farming. Taylor’s combine is equipped with the global positioning system.

“We never would have dreamed of GPS,” Taylor said.

The system monitors location, elevation, yield and moisture in the field. The combine is little more than a glorified thresher, Taylor said. Still, it is in the $200,000 price range.

Other major changes, Taylor said, included new conservation methods, such as no-till farming.

Taylor also said there are market differences between today and the time when his father farmed the land he now farms.

Back in the 1950s and ‘60s, the government set crop prices in narrow range, Taylor said. Today’s laws allow wide fluctuation in prices.

“There could be huge income shifts from year to year,” he said.

DeKalb farmer Steve Bemis pointed out the year-round work involved with farming.

“It’s kind of a fallacy; people think you just plant and there is nothing to do until you combine,” Bemis said.

Summer brings little rest for farmers; they perform preparations for harvest, including maintaining farm machinery and sweeping out grain bins.

“The preparation is actually the hardest part,” he said.

The corn harvest started at the end of September to early October for Bemis. Good weather contributed to the early harvest, he said. Once started, the harvest is a month-and-a-half job.