Harvest season

We are back with another harvest season; farmers are busy with their fully plenished crops. What is harvesting? It is the way of collecting ripe produce from the fields. It is carried out as soon as the plant has reached average maturity—the beneficial requirement of seed, rhizomes, bulbs, stems, leaves, or stalk. Many farmers use traditional and modern techniques for growing crops. There are a variety of crops grown each year in Alberta, and many create products that are supplied to our local food stores.

When it is decided to harvest crops, that all depends on the position of grains in the plants, there are many ways to harvest, including cutting, digging, picking, laying, gathering, curing, and stacking. Farmers must pay attention to the timing they harvest. If crops are left too late, that could lead to a predisposition to pests.

Hand or manual harvesting is a way to gather fruits or vegetables. Some will harvest with tools such as sickle, gandasa and small axes. Using machinery is a more modern-day method for harvesting crops, machines like combines included with other large machines that cut and clean plants simultaneously.

The harvesting process includes reaping when mature plants grown above ground are cut down. Threshing is the process of separating food grains from the rest of the cut crop. An essential part of harvesting is cleaning which involves removing dust and immature and non-grain particles from the edible food grains. Food grains are then hauled out and bagged for transport and storehouse purposes. An essential step in harvesting is storing and protecting the grains from rodents and other pests. Farmers must harvest crops using advanced technology, reducing the wastage of grains and increasing quality and quantity, leading to a higher profit.

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Harvesting is collecting and gathering the valuable and edible parts of plants after the plants have met maturity. Farmers work hard to grow and harvest crops each year for all our communities to enjoy in all our favourite grocery stores.

Photo from google