A room with a view....

[farmaholic]

Yikes that is hailed bad.

[Partners]

When to fluffy we use the roller.

[fjlip]

Canola sized wheat swaths...unless Trudo heads, 100bu/acre!

That grew on how many inches of rain?

[burnt]

Quite a contrast in equipment since I was working out there in the summer of '78. I drove one of a flock of 20' Versatile SPs and there was 1 24' pull type at work also. When the crop was light, we slid the canvas to the center and put the crop out the end.

Then drove an 860 Massey combine for a while. And a while longer.

One of my worst moments was when I was told to cut open a 1200 acre field of barley. I protested, citing my terrible lack of ability in driving in a straight line.

He insisted. I complied.

And he found out that I wasn't kidding.

A less pleasant memory - we were swathing up on The Ridge in a terrible wind, laying them east and west. By the time we were getting finished, we were laying down mostly straw - the barley heads were trashed in the wind. And when I was going with the wind, it would trap the barley under the swather until it was a heavy enough bundle to overcome the wind and drop in huge bunches. Pity the combine driver...

Then when I came back home, my brother's 12' Owatonna seemed kinda shrimpy LOL!

About wore this hit song out on my portable 8-track player:

Ah, memories...

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Here is a picture of drowned out barley to make Farmaholic feel better.

[farmaholic]

WTH..... drowned out and the ground is cracking below it's feet?

Must be clay....

Ghetto sand never cracks, no matter how dry it is.

[GDR]

Here is a picture of drowned out barley to make Farmaholic feel better.
[ATTACH]6598[/ATTACH]

That might still turn out ok! You never know till the crops in the bin right!😉

Lots of spots like that here too, and lots of those spots aren't too little. Not sure how the whole farm average will turn out yet. Lots and lots of green crops here still.

Farma, I'm not too far away from AB5 but we have a foot of good black topsoil with clay underneath. We had huge rains till beginning of August and hit that hot spell and really hasnt rained until the last couple days. Lots of cracks but they just go through the topsoil. I stopped and looked at a few dry fields around Regina few years ago and them cracks you couldn't see the bottom, I tried yelling down there and the echo back took 5 minutes.

[seldomseen]

No rain in the forecast so going to take a chance and swath oats. Just hope the elk don’t crap on the swath! Life's a gamble.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

That might still turn out ok! You never know till the crops in the bin right!😉

Lots of spots like that here too, and lots of those spots aren't too little. Not sure how the whole farm average will turn out yet. Lots and lots of green crops here still.

Farma, I'm not too far away from AB5 but we have a foot of good black topsoil with clay underneath. We had huge rains till beginning of August and hit that hot spell and really hasnt rained until the last couple days. Lots of cracks but they just go through the topsoil. I stopped and looked at a few dry fields around Regina few years ago and them cracks you couldn't see the bottom, I tried yelling down there and the echo back took 5 minutes.

Sounds about right. Doesn't take long after being wet for big but shallow cracks to form in this clay. The soil between the cracks is often still nearly saturated.

In case Farma had any doubts, I took that pic this afternoon as I read this thread, not early July as the plant color would indicate.

All of June, July, and part of August the barley feilds were green on the highland, and yellow everywhere else. Now in September it is opposite, highland is turning yellow, wet areas are finally turning green. Some areas are even decent, but two months late.

Can't even guess on whole farm average here for the barley, but I'd say at least 20% of the acres won't even make 50 bushels, and much of that is closer to 0. Won't break any records with that dragging it down. On dry years I always underestimate the yield by a lot, on wet years I inevitably overestimate.

[Hamloc]

Yours bigger than mine 👍👍

Furrow last year I swathed 40 acres of barley, intending to use it for seed. About 31/2 weeks later I combined it at 15.5% moisture, consequently I had to buy barley seed. I have a couple rules related to swathing, first don’t do it, second if you have to swath wait until after the equinox! My next big purchase will probably have to be a grain dryer, swathing is difficult to do in my neck of the woods. I do own 2 swathers, both with less than 1000 hrs. on them so I have the equipment just not the desire lol.

[sumdumguy]

Guys combining Canaryseed around here say yield 20-26. (Not too plump.👎) Nothing like those beautiful thick oat fields. Enjoy the view and keep safe.

[woodland]

Furrow last year I swathed 40 acres of barley, intending to use it for seed. About 31/2 weeks later I combined it at 15.5% moisture, consequently I had to buy barley seed. I have a couple rules related to swathing, first don’t do it, second if you have to swath wait until after the equinox! My next big purchase will probably have to be a grain dryer, swathing is difficult to do in my neck of the woods. I do own 2 swathers, both with less than 1000 hrs. on them so I have the equipment just not the desire lol.

Our rule here is if we want rain ......... go swathing. If we swath and let it sit more than a day usually Ma Nature decides sprouting is more appropriate. Swathing has been a necessary evil the last few years to keep the combine lighter so it doesn’t get stuck and to scalp the crop off the mud.

Grain dryers make life so much more bearable. At least for us. Nothing like throwing millions of btu’s with a big a$$ fan against mushy 30% barley and getting dry crunchy kernels out the bottom.

Our new “to us” dryer is almost ready to roll. I’m like a kid on December 23 knowing there’s something really good under the tree. Can’t wait to fire it up😎

Good luck Hamloc🍀

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Our rule here is if we want rain ......... go swathing. If we swath and let it sit more than a day usually Ma Nature decides sprouting is more appropriate. Swathing has been a necessary evil the last few years to keep the combine lighter so it doesn’t get stuck and to scalp the crop off the mud.

Grain dryers make life so much more bearable. At least for us. Nothing like throwing millions of btu’s with a big a$$ fan against mushy 30% barley and getting dry crunchy kernels out the bottom.

Our new “to us” dryer is almost ready to roll. I’m like a kid on December 23 knowing there’s something really good under the tree. Can’t wait to fire it up😎

Good luck Hamloc🍀

And I'm hoping that it is a perpetual Christmas eve, and you never ever need to fire up the grain dryer for the rest of your career. That would make it the best investment ever.

[furrowtickler]

Furrow last year I swathed 40 acres of barley, intending to use it for seed. About 31/2 weeks later I combined it at 15.5% moisture, consequently I had to buy barley seed. I have a couple rules related to swathing, first don’t do it, second if you have to swath wait until after the equinox! My next big purchase will probably have to be a grain dryer, swathing is difficult to do in my neck of the woods. I do own 2 swathers, both with less than 1000 hrs. on them so I have the equipment just not the desire lol.

Yup , every area different for sure
Here we took off dry barley , no green
All standing barley needed to be dried and had green issues.
Sometimes it works out , sometimes It don’t
Again we don’t swath everything, just at certain times if we feel it will work out .

[woodland]

And I'm hoping that it is a perpetual Christmas eve, and you never ever need to fire up the grain dryer for the rest of your career. That would make it the best investment ever.

We can all dream😉


At least the way we’re setting it up it’ll be quick and a lot easier to use than with the previous ones. I think that’s the key.