It is the time of the year when the foxes seek their mates. The wood stirs; there is hardly a night that we do not overhear some odd living sound or uneasy cry. The clock of the stars has struck, and life has awakened in the cold and has turned and has heard.

-Henry Beston,

Northern Farm

Last year’s corn and soybean crops set several records, according to the NASS 2014 Crop Production report. Corn harvest was a record 14.2 billion bushels, up 3 percent from 2013’s revised numbers. Soybeans had a record production of 3.97 billion bushels, up 18 percent from 2013.