DUNKERTON -- When the sun goes down, it's a different world.

For farmers still in fields as day turns to night, miles of countryside dwindle to about 50 feet, or as far as high-powered lights can shine. Ruts are harder to see, sense of direction often is lost, and safety becomes more of a concern.

It's not that growers want to be nocturnal, but sometimes they have no choice. When there's still corn to be harvested, especially at the end of November, sleep and family often take a back seat.

For rural New Hartford farmer Brad Feckers of B&D Farms and several of his employees, harvesting by moonlight near Dunkerton last week was unavoidable. After all, December arrives Monday.

"You got to go to get it done to beat the snowfall. … I'm pretty nervous," Feckers said.

Harvest is about two weeks behind schedule, according to local farmers and state officials. Ice and snowstorms aren't exactly uncommon in Northeast Iowa this time of year. Adverse weather can strand corn in fields, making it difficult to combine, or knock ears to the ground.

And that could mean lost revenue.

Monday, Feckers said he had about 600 acres of 4,500 acres still to go, or a little more than 100,000 bushels of corn to combine. At current cash prices, that's more than $300,000. If it was presold earlier this summer when corn was worth more than $7 per bushel, the number soars to more than $700,000.

That's why Feckers stayed in the cab of his leased 2008 John Deere 9670 STS combine Monday night near Dunkerton, while his wife went to school conferences for their children in New Hartford. He farms land near New Hartford, Waterloo and Dunkerton.

"I don't like it (missing family events), but I don't like picking in the snow. This overrides it," Feckers said, as the green giant gobbled up eight rows of corn at a time at 4.5 mph. "That's a lot of money."

Feckers said he'd be in the combine day and night -- except for Thanksgiving -- until the corn is out. Using a CB radio and cell phone, the 35-year-old orchestrates the harvest. He makes sure the two combines collect the crop efficiently. Two tractors with grain carts shuttle corn from the harvesters to four semis taking it to bin sites near Waterloo and New Hartford.

To motorists on nearby Dunkerton Road, the implements are nothing more than specks of light. To Feckers and his crew, it's their livelihood.

Marlin Adolphs prefers to work during the day, but he knows the corn comes first. By about 7 p.m. Monday, the part-time B&D employee already had been sitting in the seat of a 8100 John Deere tractor with a 500-bushel grain cart in tow for more than eight hours.

Hopping from field to field -- with no landmarks, like roads or water towers -- Adolphs said telling direction at times is difficult.

"It's hard to see. You don't know where you're at," Adolphs said as he drove toward the combine lights.

Just as he said it, the tractor ran over a hole. It was a back-breaking hit, even with an air-ride seat. Heavy rains this spring, he surmised, washed away topsoil.

"That's why I don't like doing this at night. But it has to get done," the retired Kent Feeds worker said.

Farming is a dangerous occupation. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it ranks first in the number of deaths per 100,000 workers a year, at 28 in 2006. In 2007, there were 715 deaths and 80,000 disabling injuries attributed to agriculture.

At night, when operators push themselves and their machines to get the crop in, things become even more dicey.

Charles Schwab, Iowa State University Extension's farm safety specialist, said there are no statistics that show harvesting at night is more dangerous than during the day.

However, he said working under the stars probably means farmers are putting in long hours. Safety measures are sometimes pushed aside when people are tired and in a hurry, Schwab said. With darkness comes the feeling of solitude, farmers say, and it's easy for the mind to wander.

"Stressful conditions for individuals could overshadow safe choices," Schwab said.

He said typical mistakes include not shutting off equipment before removing an obstruction, climbing over a moving power takeoff instead of walking around the implement and not engaging the mechanical locking device on a combine head before doing repair work.

Earlier this week, a Hills farmer died when he was pinned underneath a combine corn head.

"In a pressure situation, a person may not be thinking. But fast has its consequences," Schwab said.

Because almost every bushel of corn needed to be dried this fall, which slowed an already-delayed harvest, Clay Mitchell of rural Buckingham often worked past sunset. He said safety is paramount when harvesting at night.

The Harvard graduate said technology plays a big part. Mitchell's combine with auto-steer helps limit fatigue, and a computer adjusts moving parts, like sieves, on the go, so he doesn't have to leave the safety of the cab.

While some growers dislike working under the cover of darkness, Mitchell embraces it.

"Fields take on an endless feeling … it's a very enjoyable sensation, but you can totally lose the sense of where your are," Mitchell said. "GPS (global positioning system) is pretty useful for that."

Contact Matthew Wilde at (319) 291-1579 or matt.wilde@wcfcourier.com.