Remembering Norman Borlaug, the Iowan Who Helped Feed the World (Sept. 12, 2009)
On this date in 2009, Norman E. Borlaug—an Iowa-born agronomist widely known as the “father of the Green Revolution”—passed away at age 95 in Dallas, Texas. Raised on a small farm near Cresco, Borlaug combined Midwestern practicality with scientific rigor to unleash breakthroughs in plant breeding that changed the trajectory of food production in the United States and around the world.
After early work with the U.S. Forest Service and graduate training at the University of Minnesota, Borlaug joined a Rockefeller Foundation program in Mexico, where he tackled stem rust—a devastating wheat disease—and chronic yield instability. His innovations included developing semi-dwarf, disease-resistant wheat and popularizing “shuttle breeding,” moving experimental plots between seasons and regions to speed up genetic gains and widen adaptation. The results were dramatic: wheat yields rose sharply, first in Mexico and then across South Asia and the Middle East, helping avert famines and stabilize food supplies.
Borlaug’s impact echoed at home. His methods and mindset—relentless field testing, attention to disease pressure, and the push for yield stability—cascaded into U.S. breeding programs, extension work, and farm management. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for the humanitarian effects of his agricultural advances and later founded the World Food Prize, headquartered in Des Moines, to honor those who elevate food security, nutrition, and sustainability. Each September, the anniversary of his passing offers a reminder that agronomy and public purpose can go hand in hand—and that breakthroughs in seed, soils, and stewardship remain central to American agriculture’s mission.
When Floods Rewrote the Front Range Map (Sept. 12, 2013)
Mid-September 2013 brought historic rainfall to Colorado’s Front Range, and September 12 marked the day the disaster fully unfolded. A stalled upslope system poured days of moisture into foothill watersheds; by the 12th, creeks and rivers—including the St. Vrain and Big Thompson—overtopped, carving new channels and tearing through farms, dairies, and rangeland from the foothills onto the plains.
In one of the nation’s most diverse agricultural corridors, producers faced flooded silage corn, ruined hay stocks, compromised center pivots, and washed-out rural roads. Irrigation infrastructure—headgates, diversion dams, and ditch laterals—suffered extensive damage, complicating late-season water deliveries and forcing hurried repairs that stretched into subsequent years. Weld County, a powerhouse for crops and livestock, saw widespread disruption as dairies and feedlots scrambled to move animals, reroute feed, and manage waterlogged pens.
The floods triggered federal and state disaster responses, emergency funding for ditch reconstruction, and a rethinking of floodplain resilience in irrigated agriculture. They also highlighted how tightly interconnected western farming is with snowmelt, storage, and ditch networks—and how fragile that system can be when extreme weather arrives in the narrow window between late-summer harvest and fall fieldwork.
A Date That Often Moves Markets: USDA’s September Crop Reports
Mid-September is traditionally when USDA’s Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports deliver pivotal adjustments to yield and supply outlooks for corn, soybeans, cotton, and other major commodities. In several years, those reports have landed on September 12, turning the date into a recurring flashpoint for price discovery and on-farm decision-making.
By September, farmer surveys and objective field measurements refine earlier estimates, translating kernel counts, pod weights, and boll maturity into production forecasts. For producers, merchandisers, and end users, those updates can influence harvest-time hedging, basis expectations at country elevators, storage plans, and feed procurement. The broader lesson etched into this date is that small shifts in national yield—magnified across tens of millions of acres—can ripple through local cash markets, input purchases, and farm balance sheets.
Mid-September on the Farm: A Long View
Across generations, this week on the calendar has been a hinge between growing season and harvest. Historically, the window around September 12 has meant pre-harvest sampling, final irrigation runs in the West, sugar beet pre-pile in the Upper Midwest, rice combines rolling across the Mid-South, and early apple and pear picks in orchards from Washington to New England. Over time, improvements in genetics, planting dates, irrigation efficiency, and integrated pest management have nudged those rhythms earlier or later, but the mid-September pivot remains a constant.
Conservation practices have also evolved around this date. As combines fire up, cover crop seeding calendars kick in; residue management, soil testing, and fall nutrient planning can lock in gains for soil health and water quality. Meanwhile, risk management decisions—crop insurance production reports, grain marketing targets, and storage allocation—move from spreadsheets to the scale ticket.
Why These Anniversaries Matter
The echoes of September 12 run from the laboratory to the ditch bank to the futures pit. Borlaug’s legacy underscores how science can expand the frontier of yield and resilience. The 2013 Colorado floods underscore how climate and infrastructure risks can compress decades of investment into a single, high-stakes week. And the recurring cadence of USDA’s September reports shows how information—delivered at the right time—can change the course of a season.
Taken together, the date is a reminder that U.S. agriculture is both a product of long-term ingenuity and a daily management challenge, where preparation meets uncertainty just as harvest begins.