Hello freewheat

[bucket]

Has anyone heard from him and what he is doing.

Would like to hear an update from him.

[SASKFARMER3]

Yea free wheat what's up we need a steady voice.

[farmaholic]

I kind of summoned him too a couple of times. I hope he is okay. Maybe he won a lottery and forgot about Agriville and us peasants.

[ColevilleH2S]

Does freewheat post under the name uthinkyourwet on Combine forum?

[dalek]

Had a message from him a few days ago, he's alive anyway. Don't know much more than that.

[Partners]

Yes.that's his handle on combine forum..

[freewheat]

Hey guys. Yeah, I am still alive. Been on a bit of a hiatus lately. Life gets in the way, family, busy seasons of life, and perspectives change, and well, long story short, here I am.

Sure I can give y'all an update on my farm and this area. Wadena/Kelvington kinda region. Though outside the dramatic flooding this year, as in not the massive amounts of water other areas have had which drew out tv crews, etc., it of course has been rather damp, to be blunt. Whether water is sitting, or the soil is saturated beyond capacity with no water sitting on extensive areas, we all know the result is the same: oxygen-less roots either way...

Honestly, I am surprised at the apparent recovery of SOME of the crops.

I have in all honesty, through blind, plain, and mostly dumb luck, ONE (wish it was all my canola), of the NICEST canola fields I have seen anywhere this year. One problem, it was seeded june 9th. Hopefully she makes it. The ground was covered at the 4 leaf stage on 12 inch spacing like the invigors of yore. Ultra late, yes. High yield potential. Surprisingly, yes. Will it make it, IE. no frost until the 20th of September? Maybe...

It was at a low demand growth stage at the height of the water inundation, so it was not trying aggressively to grow right when the water fell, which saved it. For now. Again, this is just my one field, but it is a gorgeous crop. The other canola? meh. My home quarter recovered well enough considering, some never did recover well, and is sparse at full flower like most fields in the country.

My early barley is normal/ok. My late barley, again, is REALLY good. Seeded June 5th though, so it has a ways to go. Same thing as that late canola: It just was so small when it was so wet, it never hurt it as much as if it had been in a rapid growth stage. Has been DARK green and thick from the get go.

Wheat is very, very good to look at, but late of course.

Canaryseed looks good. I have it on my "poor, low assessed land" up in the hills, and in wet years, rolling, shallow, dryer soil is a gold mine, relative to the deep, rich flatter lowlands.

Peas. If only they were all like the high areas. I unfortunately seeded them on some of my wetter, flatter (high assessed) land, and of all my crops, I am most nervous about them. They are not as bad as some I have seen, but certainly not what they could be: The hills attest to that, let me tell you. The low flats tell me as well.

Personally, I am feeling relatively fortunate overall. Between the later seeding timing, my practice of topdressing ammonium sulfate after emergence, and also with how I lucked out with where each crop in my rotation was seeded, I am sitting in a not bad spot all in all. I put a lot into this crop, (who didn't, huh?), and as long as it freezes late enough, it will be a pretty decent overall crop. How fitting. It is my practice and my farm history to grow good crops when grain prices suck, and in the high grain price years, my crops suck. Go figure...

Nuff about me:

As far as in the general area Canola generally sucks, barley is pretty fair, wheat is great, oats is decent, flax is quite poor, peas are mostly poor. The thing is, it is so hit and miss with all the different crops. Beside my phenomenal barley, is poor barley. I have poor peas beside decent peas. I can not put my finger on it agronomically, to be honest. Guys here are a bit confused at the many situations where there simply is no explanation. ???????? Anyone?

I have never seen such poor overall canola in this area. Even in 2010 if it was lucky enough to have been seeded, it looked better than this year. My airplane and floater seeded stuff in 2007 and 2012 looked better than 80% of the canola around this year does, and it was wetter, and for longer those years. Those years a lot of canola never broke 20, and for this year, I would bet lots does not make 15 to 20 and the odd, odd field makes 25 plus. Most guys I talk too are mystified with how poor the canola is: Most think it goes beyond too much rain, and I agree. Too much rain, for sure. But we also dealt with COLD soil, a light frost on heavy straw fields at the coty to 3 leaf stage. Regardless, canola sucks in this area.

And yup, we have sheep, and intend to keep expanding. I enjoy the little beggars. The good thing about rain, is that we have 4 times the sheep per acre than really good pasture land would typically support. The dang things eat and baaa, pumping out yummy lambs, and I do not owe money on them, or on any machinery or land used for them, or the fences that hold them. I do not rack up hundreds of thousands in inputs in two months, owe-able later. They do not drown, get frozen, hailed out, eaten by berthas, diamond backs, weevils, aphids, cutworms. Canada imports 60% of the lamb we consume, not export 600% of what we consume, like with most grains.

Wish I had got them 20 years ago.

Anyway, getting late, and I am carrying on for a guy who is on sabbatical, and I do not mean to bore y'all. But that is my report for me and my area.

I appreciate the concern. I am alive and well. I will get back to posting. My life has settled down some now...

Take care.

[Ronski]

Good to hear all is well. We get caught up bitching and complaining about the weather and its great to see somebody making changes to their farm to cope instead of...

[Hopalong]

Appreciate your attitude, a welcome relief to some of the other posters.

[seabass]

Good to hear Freewheat. Neighbor has goats and he said its the best thing he's done on his farm. Just loves them muslims certain times of the year.

[SASKFARMER3]

Good to here from you,
POST MAKES SENCE, AS THIS YEARS CROP IS LIKE YOU SAY ALL OVER THE BOARD. CANOLA PEAS FLAX HAVE BIGGEST ISSUES.

GOOD LUCK.

[seabass]

Good to hear Freewheat. Neighbor has goats and he said its the best thing he's done on his farm. Just loves them muslims certain times of the year.

[seabass]

Good to hear Freewheat. Neighbor has goats and he said its the best thing he's done on his farm. Just loves them muslims certain times of the year.

[sumdumguy]

Goats? Like Billy and Nanny? I know a lady who sold her breeding herd of about 50 animals for $50,000. Sound unreal to you? Me too.

That was about 5 years ago. She kept the rest and now she will probably sell off another breeding herd. Even though they smell to high heaven, its the smell of cash-cold cash.