Friday Crop Report!

[SASKFARMER3]

Well lets just say I was so happy last Saturday morning when I phoned the farm and found out we had any where from 3 inches to almost a inch of rain over the entire farm.
Chest puffs up and you think wow maybe It will be a average year with the rain. Fill the pods and heads with nice plump grain and call it a year.
Then yesterday a neighbour I was talking to said he had some hail damage from Fridays storm. So last night the boys and I went crop inspecting. Wow do I have great luck or what. Hail on another 7 quarters. Damage any where from 35 to 5 percent. Mostly canola since its a block we farm.
This year is just getting so much better. Last hail in area was 5 years ago and before that maybe 5 more.
well I got what I asked for moisture at beginning of august. Wrong kind.
Crop report.
Hrs is still doing ok but one thing is showing up and its some minor fusarium. Its later than normal but isn't every thing this year. Only affecting the last seed in seed set the little one that might make it or might not, so instead of 8 row its 6. Now one hailed out field on our tour that regrew from basically being mowed down on July 5 storm has it pretty bad. Over all the hrs has handled the moisture issues the best and some how is making grain. No where near last year but will have some thing to harvest. Most will be desiccating in 10 to 14 days. The heat has done one thing its helping us catch up.
Peas and Lentils get just more ugly evey day. Fields that looked ok before the heavy rain storm Friday now not so good. We have desiccated our seed field and one very ugly field. The remainders were waiting till early next week to kill. Hail and crop adjusters are out all over the place. Some companies like Municipal wrote the July 5 storm damage off at 100 percent other companies like coop its a wait and see today is my wait and see day with them. This is the last year for peas in our area is a conversation I have had with most growers. Heads up pea acreage will be way way down in 2015 in east.
Soy the only bright spot in 2014 on our farm. Its almost at my inseam height. Pods are forming with 3 seeds per pod. Soy made it in the flood the best, It loves the heat and now the rain, My god you can almost see it growing. Again were ahead of last year so maybe the new variety is better. Time will tell but wow is it coming along nice.
Canola now this is a crop that WTF is the only way to describe it. Yes it came back after the 5 of july hail storm only to be hit again on last Friday. This time their is no coming back. Spent way to much growing canola for a below average crop. Next year back to the basics they can take their new varieties and shove them up their ass. Seems when I didn't baby sit the crop it made me money now giving it every thing is giving me heartburn and no profit. Yes mother nature has dealt us a shitty hand but Canola has issues.
Early has begun its shut down and with the rain will fill. Now one can see again the ugly fields, funny how a yellow flower can give you hope only to reveal a month later sick little plants with a few pods in wet areas. Some fields are regrowing in wet areas and are just yellow. Late still looks the best seeded in June. Just finished flowering. Middle seeded at prime seeding time is the ugly fields. Yield in area will be half last years crop. So if you had 60 you got a 30 if you had 50 you have 25 and if you had 40 you have a 20. Its one crop that isn't going good. Yes we do have the odd field here and their that will do good every one in our area has one.
Flax some fields that had bad water issues now have weed issues and poor yield potential, others that came through the flood real good have a nice crop on the way.
Oats is every where from awesome to WTF happened. I have a half of each. Water took the stools on one half.
Barley is filling nice and late has big heads time will tell and time is what I need lots of time for this one to make it.
Durum in area is filling nice but fusarium is present not bad but most will be a nice three. This is on fields guys sprayed with every thing.
So to sum up the week got rain, got hail, got last of grain contracts filled from last fall, got a lot accomplished but realise finally that this year we hopefully with the low grain prices get enough to break even.
So remember its just a farm, Be safe one day you'll get that perfect year, one day.

[SASKFARMER3]

2015 here we come. Crop is late by three weeks, with heat is now two behind. One more week of heat and maybe another week we will catch up. Late harvest is on its way. Sept and October better be nice.

[Oliver88]

One thing in your report that I've heard from many farmers this year is:
"Spent way to much growing canola for a below average crop."

[ado089]

Some guys are knocking canola down around here. We're waiting for the heat to pass the next couple of days. We seem to be in God's country this year but this polak plow boy thinks yields will be off 20% from last year on account of inconsistent emergence and early season wetness. The crops look nice but depth of padding isn't there for anything past an average crop. Funny thing is that the $36/ac seed looks every bit as good as the $75/ac stuff. Wheat looks good but is filling less kernels per head than last year. Oats will be a bin buster with little inputs as usual. Peas are sh!t except for one field on a sand dune. The darling crop so far is rye, looks like 60 and the price is rising, had three buyers call me unsolicited two weeks ago looking to buy.

[SASKFARMER3]

One common theme is developing not last years everywhere! Also the spending on shitty canola and cheap seed is as good as the best! Seed guys are in for a rough fall! Ordered all cheap shit varieties except for one or two in between! Done spending on a crop that cost more than you make!

[Klause]

Peas ours are good, along with a few neighbours out west of Humboldt.

Around here there are no good peas.

Well, Hoppers looks pretty damn good, but late. They need a rain to finish then they will make a 40bpa crop also.


Wheat... Doesn't matter if you sprayed or not. 90% of fields are infested with fusarium and it is still spreading.

Ive walked a few fields that are 50% infection. One south of Humboldt is at 80%. Literally, 8 out of 10 heads are 50% or more gone.


Barley. Late looks better. Early is thin... Fusarium in it too. North it looks way way better.

Oats. Very little around, looks good. Late seeded though across the board so need a frost free window till Sept 15th.

Canola. It's all shit. 20bpa average in this area. Some is thin, some is short, some is tall with short pods.

Can't grow 50bpa canola with a 1ft long pod canopy. North looks way better. 40-50bpa up there no problem.


Canary... two fields. Very weedy. doesn't look bad.

Lentils. Wow. Why bother planting them here.


Durum... few fields around. lots of fusarium, but looks good otherwise.


Hog barns around here are in trouble finding wheat this year. There won't be any low vomi around.

[rockpile]

From the stories I'm reading, it sounds like something I predicted 25 years ago is coming home to roost - disease, disease, disease. I think there needs to be a re-think towards incorporating summer fallow as a control strategy and way more attention to crop rotations and herbicide application. There needs to be a step back from the maximum production per acre mindset and more attention given to good soil stewardship for long term survival.

[TASFarms]

Five years since I have had durum on this field and there is fus in it.

[charliep]

rockpile

There may be other reasons for moving from no-till/single but I not sure fusarium is one of them. Fusarium is a matter of having the pathogen in the soil, having a susceptible crop and from there the right climatic conditions. The pathogen fusarium graminearium also has the ability to adapt as indicated by the slow move out of the Red River valley in the Mid 1990's to South East Saskatchewan and now parts of Southern Alberta.

Sorry for the rant but my frustration when I have asked about this is in the past and plant breeding programs. The response was muted or we can deal with it agronomically/through use of fungicides. Years like this are going to bite in the butt unless there is some form of resistance bred into the plant. Fusarium head blight/resulting DON (nasty molds) that have implications for pigs and people. Yes we clean, blend, etc but not something our customer wants.

[rockpile]

Charlie, I'm not just talking about fusarium. I'm looking at the whole basket of issues from bugs, diseases and herbicide resistant weeds and the loss of microbial life in the soil. I was out at a friends farm the other day and dug around in the soil. While it was full of good organic matter, was a deep dark brown and felt solid - it stunk! Some really sour putrid smell. Not much of a wheat crop either, but that was probably due to 4 weeks of heat and no rain. Just a feeling, but something has changed.

[SASKFARMER3]

But this falls into their plan do SFA with varieties under old system farmer takes hit then with new seed rules bring one out that's been on the table and charge 80 a acre huge profit again for companies farmer screwed' the circle of life goes on!

[Klause]

Minimum till is way better for the soil then summer fallow.

Burning organic matter and killing worms is bad for the soil.

Native prairie grows every year.

[wmoebis]

Your right Klause. Do native prairie plants get diseases that hurt or kill people/livestock when eaten? After all these years of crop development where is the perennial wheat, resistant to all these diseases? Never going to happen.

How many crops were lost or even down graded 30 yrs ago to Fus, Midge or Even ergot? Ergot was controlled with perimeter tillage, crop rotation or early cutting and baling perimeters for control. They could have stopped Fus in the early 90's in the Red River Valley when it was first started but look how much money grain and chem companies would have lost.

[Klause]

Ergot is a symptom of cu deficiency.

We had trouble with it one year. Foliar feeding g cu has completely eliminated it as an issue

[ado089]

Klause, When, what rate and what product are you using for copper. I have pretty mixed results on plant safety especially when mixing with fungicide. The old formulation of folicure was the best because you could cut out the surfactant. Next year I might take it organic and skip the fungicide and apply more copper with more water at flag.