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While the winter season might not be the busiest time of year for area farmers, the months after harvest remain a busy time as preparations are made for the upcoming planting season.

Estill Springs area farmer Jamie Weaver said what keeps a farmer busy during the winter months has a lot to do with what type of farm operation they have.

“A beef cattle producer, when the grass is growing they are eating all they want, so you are not having to feed them,” Weaver said. “This time of year when the grass is not growing, we are having to feed them all the hay we put up last winter.”

Weaver said in addition to farming row crops, his family also raises pigs and cows.

While the cows require more time and attention during the winter months, Weaver said his pig operation stays consistent throughout the year.

“All our pigs are inside, so the weather doesn’t affect them like it does the cows,” he said. “With the cows, in the wintertime you are putting out hay and in the summer you are bailing hay, so that is the trade-off.”

Weaver said the winter months are a chance for farmers to catch up on some maintenance that they would not have had time to do during the growing season.

“There are a lot of jobs that as long as they don’t completely tear up, we will hold off until we get done and then we will go through the machine,” he said.

Weaver said the winter months are also a time for ordering inputs and attending various farm-related meetings and events.

“UT Extension puts meetings on, the Farm Bureau has meetings,” he said. “The National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, I know several people that will go to Louisville to see if they are unveiling new equipment or new things.”

Hillsboro farmer Don Willis said he plants corn, wheat soybeans and barely and also has a cow-calf operation.

“My dad started over across the road from here and then bought this farm in 1965 and we continued to expand from there,” Willis said. “We have been headquartered here since 1960.”

Willis said that regardless of what time of year it is, a farmer has one significant responsibility that never changes.

“Every day your first priority is to take care of your livestock,” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference what else happens, you have to take care of your livestock.”

Willis said the winter months also see him shipping grain, along with doing some fence and building maintenance.

“We always have something in our shop that we are working on,” Willis said. “We have hay equipment to get ready for spring, planting equipment.”

“It is constant maintenance to try and get everything as ready as we can be for spring,” Willis added.

While it is still too early for area farmers to know exactly when they will begin planting, there is still a general game plan in place for the upcoming season.

“Most of our seed is purchased in November and December,” Willis said. “As far as a plan, we know what we are going to plant where, but we don’t know when we are going to plant it yet.”

Willis and Weaver agree that weather has a lot to do with when a farmer can actually begin spring planting.

“Sometimes we will start planting corn and beans in late March and sometimes it is the 10th or 12th of April, but that is the timeframe,” Willis said. “You shoot to have the planters in the field the first week of April.”

Weaver said it seems like for the last several years, spring planting has not been able to begin as early as in previous years.

“If the ground temperature is right, end of March people will start planting,” he said.

Weaver said that while generally most planting is done in April and the first part of May, he recalls planting corn as early as the first part of March.

Until then, he has enough projects to keep him busy as the winter months begin to wind down.

“The joke is all summer and fall you say that is a job I’ll put it off until this winter,” he said. “I have two or three years’ worth of wintertime projects that I haven’t gotten to yet.”