Crop conditions

[charliep]

Just a note to get a bit of chatter going on crop conditions, yield potential and likely start of harvest. Make sure you indicate the general region of your farm.

[Skynorth]

Threshing Excel barley 15 NW of Regina. 60 bpa, 51 lbs., 13% moisture.

Norm Colhoun, Lumsden, Sask.

[Skynorth]

Yellow peas are coming off in the North Battleford area, yields ranging 10 - 15 bus/ac. mostly feed quality. Some #2 greens in the same yield range.

[wd9]

A question I have always wondered about. Do we as farmers give too much information about our yield and crop conditions limiting both up and down potential of rallies? Should we be a lot quieter about the actual conditions of our crops? Would this information get out anyways?

[crusher]

Crop is ripening fast NE of Edmonton. Will start dessicating peas soon. Yields look good, probably above average. Some canola over five feet tall, hope it yields 10 bushels per foot. Can't believe the difference over 2002, but still haven't harvested a bushel.

[charliep]

wd9

You are likely right that the farm community shares too much information. The reason I put this in the thread is to get people thinking about weather.

As a note, this is a prime concern among agri-business and they spend a lot of time/effort on it. As an example, I spent a lot of time talking to elevator managers about crop conditions in my time at former UGG and this was a reported back to grain traders/managers. Weather is also (even today) a prime point of my conversations with industry.

The other issue is to get people thinking about the implications of weather on market decisions. An issue I suffer from is looking out my front window (i.e. the region I live in) and assuming weather/crop conditions are similar everywhere else in western Canada. Some how you have to get the best information possible (not easy) for potential crop production.

Case in point is today. Heat has trimmed back yields in many areas. The question is how much.

[ALLFARMER]

My folks have canola at Westlock that is 5' tall & I could not believe it. I am glad I won't be making the first round, 25' swather I figure there will be more than a few piles. I have never seen canola that good. Here in the Peace country many canola fields were worked under due to poor germination, then cut worms started in to the extent that some patches were 150 acres in size. I hope my half section of canola averages 30bua even with the 30 acres where the air seeder felt lazy. We had a wind Aug 1st at 35 celcius that burned off some barley heads. At Manning I noticed a hopper bin blew over. At La Crete / Ft. Vermillion I figure there are over 100 grain bins knocked over likely half the farms here have bin damage, some with wooden floors most hoppers this steel bases. One farmer I know has 7 bins that went over another with 9 hoppers that went over. If your buying bins don't put them too close together and put your hoppers on cement not steel, the price is nearly the same.