Friday Crop Report on a Thursday!

[SASKFARMER]

Well, what a weird week this has been. We got hammered on Sunday afternoon with a storm that had lots of wind and 1.7 inches of rain. Yesterday was an awesome day with temps in the 29 C range and last night it gave us a little thunder and lightning and rain 3/10 so far as i write this. One of our newer weather stations that went online at the end of May has 8 inches so far for the year.

Crop Report.

I don't think this year I will have time to do my usual provincial tour in one weekend but i will be taking side trips every once and a while and checking things out.

So far I did Moosejaw down to Big Beaver then over to the east and back through Avonlea. Regina to Canora over to Ituna and back to Regina.

Grasshoppers are a problem down south. You can see them on the road and a lot of fields have 10 Ft around quarters eaten in some areas. Bad.

The second thing I noticed is Canola is late in a lot of places and really not that great down south. Patchy.

To the north it's thick but oh so late. One guy yesterday just doing his first liberty. Seeding in late June before the crop insurance deadline has a long way to go before it's done.

So here is the Crop Report.

HRS is now in the shot stage or heading. Fungicides are going on with planes and choppers and ground rigs. With rain every few days, the scare of Fuzz is what guys remember and will fight this year.
The crop that's early seeded is full headed the later stuff is shot blade and has massive leaves. 9/10 not giving a 10/10 because it's so late frost is on everyone's mind. Heat is pushing the crop and that's a good thing. About a week behind now for most because of Craven week I always had to miss because of Midge spraying.

The barley we have two crops in our area the early seeded and late seeded. Guys switched from cereals to do their Canola and so Barley got seeded last. Early we have sprayed Fungicide already and it is fully headed. Late is in the flag and will be sprayed soon. 9/10 again late could have issues otherwise it's really good.

Peas and lentils. Peas are in two camps never had for 6 to 8 years and nice and then the peas canola wheat pea fields that you can see problems. The best is by the town a half section that's like a shag rug thick and tall and really nice. Fungicides have been sprayed and full flower now. Lentils were sprayed and some were done again. Thick. both 9/10 but excess rain could take it down and disease could get the lentils.

Durum we have a few guys and they have sprayed and are fully headed.

Flax is coming nice and loves the heat. Most have sprayed disease and it's off to the races.

Canola the slow sister struggled early with flea problems on early seeded and later seeded in June and has almost caught up to those fields some are spraying fungicides some aren't. The odd guy is complaining to the west of us that it flowers and doesn't produce pods. Did we get batches of duds from South America last winter? Canola for the most part now is coming on strong but a very big worry is the late seeding date for this crop. We have lots of full moons to get through before it's in the bin. So yes a 9/10 but could be a 2 with one cold night. **** I hate the pressure. Markets don't get that and they don't get that Sask still has areas with Min rain and the next 10 days of heat when we are all flowering. Any day above 28 doesn't produce a pod from those flowers.

Hay fields are the best I have seen for years. Thick thick and thick. Ditch bales even look nice and guys are getting lots. Pasture cows are having a blast with grass up to their udders, must tickle.


So for this week in the cropping year, things are looking really up. But in the years 2002 and 2004, I remember the last time we had a crop like this it froze on the 4th of August and it was all over.

Have a great day it's off to spray as soon as the ground dries up a bit. Ag in Motion next week is one of my favorite shows to see people and pick my new varieties for 2023 to grow.

Stay safe and remember its only a crop and the ****ers are already salivating to take it from us for nothing.

[SASKFARMER]

Oh the bank of Canada cranked internet rates now at least I can make a few % on savings.

Any one with variable mortgage just got humped yesterday real hard.

Spend like a Trudeau get ****ed after.

Ok back to farming.

Farmers I Europe are pissed and mad.

Gov wants to cut Fert and cow manure and they aren’t taking it.

Skippy has a plan for us also and it involves the same thing will we lay down and die or fight I think most will lay down and die.

Our farm groups have already.

[Partners]

Crops all over the board.
Early has a good chance.
Late stuff might be headed/blooming Aug 1st..
Hot Temps on the way so that could change alot..

[SASKFARMER]

Hay field



Last seeded canola bolting today

[AlbertaFarmer5]

West central Alberta area. Anywhere from 8 to 15 in of rain in a month. There are some very big problems in canola crops. Hard to tell how much of that is the excess water and how much is the seed issues and flea beetles. But there are some absolute disasters and not very many canola crops that would rate as excellent at least south and west of the Red Deer area.

Now that it has finally warmed up and hasn't rained for a few days, starting to see what is and isn't going to survive. Some of the yellow spots in the cereals are starting to Green up and some are just turning white. Even wheat crops that look good from the top, but when you see the edges most of the leaves have been yellow for some time from being in saturated soil for over a month. Lots of sprayer ruts, and lots of those still have standing water.
For the most part the week does look very good, with the exception of the complete drought-outs. Vast areas of yellow in most barley crops.
Most oats look good.
I thought there would be a lot more bees with the price of fertilizer but I don't see very many. Low areas are not pretty obviously, but surprisingly the peas look better than canola when they are side by side. I would have thought the canola would tolerate the excess water better than the peas would, or does the damage not show up as soon?

Sprayers going everywhere so apparently fungicide is worthwhile.
Lots of canola not yet in flower. Way behind normal.

There seems to be a big panic to cut hay down with the good weather forecast. But I'm not quite understanding why it's worthwhile making ruts and going around every wet spot water splashing off the tires.

After a slow start to the pastures, they sure are growing now.

Mother nature is laughing at all of my drainage efforts. Still no match for water flowing through every low spot for a month plus..
The one that's saving Grace was having a very low water table to start with. There's an unused water well that I check occasionally. Last year it was 6 ft below grade on the midpoint of a side slope. This year it is just below grade and the crop around it looks fine. On a typical wet year like this it would be 3 ft above grade and flowing and the crop would be drowned out halfway up the slope. So this could have been a much worse disaster if not for the drought last year.

They were comments elsewhere about canola not looking healthy. I've noticed quite a bit here that looked green and lush when it was in cabbage stage. And when it started bolting got very pale looked thin and sickly. Some seems to be recovering now. Perhaps the nutrients just got washed down too deep, faster than the roots could go down when it was so wet or the plant was out growing The Roots?

There was a huge swath of hail went through a couple of weeks back. Even the leaves are gone off the trees. Crops are attempting to come back on the higher ground but it is devastating. Multiple bad hail events apparently. But one huge one close to home. It seemed like the hail plains were going over multiple times every day for quite a while.

[SASKFARMER]

Thanks for the Alberta report.

Yes once the sun comes out and a few days of heat the wheat and canola and barley did hit the gas. We had some problems.

Rain every third day is ok in the heat but if it continues into fall **** me well have issues because we are so late.

[Sheepwheat]

Crops phenomenal. Late.

Impossible to time this hay cut. At the end of June I was thinking two cuts for sure, but then the near daily rains put an end to that theory. Thunderstorms every couple days for the foreseeable future. When to cut? We got a boomer last night of nearly a half inch. They had forecast an 80% chance of ten mm since Saturday. So they were bang on. If they continue to be bang on, and unfortunately they’ve been surprisingly accurate, there is no window at all to dare to cut hay.

When to cut?

[shtferbrains]

Crops phenomenal. Late.

Impossible to time this hay cut. At the end of June I was thinking two cuts for sure, but then the near daily rains put an end to that theory. Thunderstorms every couple days for the foreseeable future. When to cut? We got a boomer last night of nearly a half inch. They had forecast an 80% chance of ten mm since Saturday. So they were bang on. If they continue to be bang on, and unfortunately they’ve been surprisingly accurate, there is no window at all to dare to cut hay.

When to cut?

When the alfalfa dehy's ran here they considered July 20 as the drop dead day to have all the first cut down in order to get a decent higher quality/priced second cut.
So obviously started cutting second cut shortly after that date that they sometimes got a third cut on.

Don't see much grass volume in second cut.

[jazz]

Had a very timely rain last night, should lessen any heat blast we might still get.

There is a rocking crop coming here. Most of the canola problems have been sorted out, some a little late but still going to bloom mostly this month.

And this was done on just 4 inches of rain since may 1.

[fjlip]

Road trip E of Wadena and back E of Kelvington. All crops VG to excellent for July 1st. So late. Wheat field headed S of Preeceville. Only one. Most canola in bloom. Odd field with water.

[SASKFARMER]

Spraying fungicide today and rain is now taking grain as areas dying from excess water not big areas but it’s happening.

[SASKFARMER]

L340 seeded June 1

[fcr]

Things are not great everywhere.We are at 4.8 inches total since april, crops are going backwards daily. SCIC already checking fields for guys who may want to put up for feed.Grain co. will deny that there is issues but thats the reality.

[Hamloc]

Picture taken out the sprayer window. Was applying fungicide to Pioneer P506ML.

[furrowtickler]

Things are not great everywhere.We are at 4.8 inches total since april, crops are going backwards daily. SCIC already checking fields for guys who may want to put up for feed.Grain co. will deny that there is issues but thats the reality.

Absolutely right
Did a drive to Lethbridge and back
Huge area not great
Hopefully they get something decent