Photos by Dave Gore
This is the final installment of a glimpse into the realities of farm life through the eyes of Union County Farm Bureau member Ron Burns and his fiancée, Melissa Downerd. The corn harvest, livestock care and a special moment between the couple are captured in a last look at “a year in the life” of a family farm.

The last of the crops are harvested in late October, early November as Burns and Downerd prepare for winter. 

Organic corn is harvested through the combine. 

Then Burns sets up the grain auger to load the bin with corn. 

In the meantime Downerd keeps watch over her beef Holstein herd, which she will raise to their market weight of 600 pounds.

Guinea hens scavenge for bugs around the farm and eat excess feed in the cattle pen. 

Keeping a watch over all the activity at the Burns/Downerd farm is the farmyard patriarch Jack Willis, a goat.

Ron and Melissa were engaged as we documented life on the farm through 2016. They are preparing for a June 2018 wedding.