Indiana Farm Bureau members Chrissy and Josh Arnold took a break from soybean harvest to talk about what it means to sit at the helm of their family farm. The Arnold’s lost their patriarch earlier this year — Josh’s grandfather, who started their Adams County, Indiana, mixed crop and grain elevator operation — which is now run by the family’s third generation.
“Today, we’re at our family farm doing bean harvest,” Chrissy said. “I grew up in town. I married a farmer. I think being a farmer is one of the coolest lives we could have had. It’s a lot of fun getting to work with our family and getting to see, when we all succeed together [or] when we have rough times—we’re all in it together.”
The Arnold’s operation is run by Josh as well as his father and brother. The family’s fourth generation, Josh and Chrissy’s two sons, hold off-farm jobs, but they also help with farm work during harvest and whenever they can.
“I’m a third-generation farmer; [our operation] started with my grandpa, who passed away this year,” Josh said. “We also run a grain elevator that was started by my grandpa in 1966. We continue to operate—buy and sell grain, corn, soybeans, and wheat. We produce corn and soybeans here in Adams County.”
According to Josh Arnold, this year’s soybean season has been a bit atypical. However, they have continued to adapt to the changing weather, and it seems to be working well.
“Typically, soybean harvest [is] usually, you know, the end of September into October; some years it varies,” he said. “This year, it’s a little bit later; everything’s been delayed this year on the maturity of the crop because we had a cool spring. We were dry early so we planted but it. It was cold, so it took a long time for the crops to germinate and to emerge so everything’s a couple weeks behind the normal operation evolves we have.”
The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA) most recent reports show the state of Indiana’s soybean harvest is seven points ahead of the five-year average.
