Friday Crop Report and a Thursday. Mid May.

[agstar77]

I probably should not mention it , but we have good soil moisture with 10mm last night. Maybe the worm has turned since the last few years we have missed almost every shower in the spring. 70 % done.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Haven't seen quack here in decades.

Quack grass is under control. But don't can never be eliminated. Virtually everything we farm started out as solid quack grass.

Every fence line and tree line and property line at least road and drainage ditch and obstacle is nothing but quackgrass. This drill is great at dragging the roots around.

Bri every year we bring more wet areas or tree lines or fences for farm yards into production along with the quack grass.

And I am constantly hauling in manure and topsoil that is inevitably contaminated with quackgrass.

I once had the great idea that I could spray the quack grass out of the fence lines and it would quit creeping back into the fields. Worked really well at replacing quack grass with thistles. I left the grass grow back.


My neighbor complains that my straw doesn't have any quack grass in it. No food value without it. This is the exception and not the rule.

[blackpowder]

Of course it exists here in all the mentioned places. Just not in the cropland at all. Haven't seen it since fall gly came along. Thank God. And yes, nature will fill a vacuum. Fence row nozzles and gly will do that for thistle.

[blackpowder]

I see a reference to Peavey mart, it would be great if North 40 stores moved across the border from Havre. They’ve got just about everything a farm would need, hydraulics, vet, clothes, guns, tools, fishing gear and general hardware, it’s impressive but no electronics or white wedding dresses for those that care.
Great place to spend a hour but the exchange beats you up.

I've been in that store. Guns and fishing a specialty thing here.
Believe I saw vet stuff you have to go to vet here for. Havre a small town that serves a big area. Did you go up the hill to visit Big Bud?

[Hamloc]

We finished yesterday. That's the earliest we've ever been done by a wide margin.

Zero rain delays. That's a first.

Still nothing more than a chance of showers in the forecast. We've had a lot of those chances so far without getting anything noteworthy.

Zero wet spots to work around. That's also a first. Although I did manage to get stuck a couple of times, but had to try very hard.

Also unique this year, we were able to get decent pre-seed weed control on quackgrass. Typically waiting for enough growth to get it effective kill is our holdup in the spring.

So far, the frosts haven't been serious enough to cause any problems.


Along with the perfect weather conditions, also came very little trouble with fertilizer building up and plugging. Amazing how much more you get done in a day when you're not constantly dealing with plugs and build up on meters.

Our antique equipment had below average breakdowns. And the help was reliable.

Hardly ever turned the headlights on. Managed to get some sleep every single night

Sounds too good to be true, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

We finished today. Went pretty good. Very dry. My son put in some long days. Deal with cows then on to the drill. Seeded through low areas that I haven’t seeded through in my time grain farming. Wheat all coming up good. First canola was seeded 8 days ago, no canola up when I looked tonight. Pastures need rain, they look pretty sad. As you said AB5, showers have been forecast but less than a tenth since May 1 here.

[furrowtickler]

Need 3 good days , 6 bad days
everyday an adventure

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Lots of cows have gone out the pasture weeks ahead of normal. There were years we didn't have enough grass until the middle of june. Grass looks really good so far. Hay got off to a great early start. But this is not a good time of year to be dry. Even worse stopping to be applying expensive fertilizer. When it doesn't rain.

A month ago the price of hay was collapsing. Now people are starting to worry about hay.crops.

Just checking some canola seeded on the 18th and it is emerged. Just barely.

[makar]

And I am constantly hauling in manure and topsoil that is inevitably contaminated with quackgrass.

I once had the great idea that I could spray the quack grass out of the fence lines and it would quit creeping back into the fields. Worked really well at replacing quack grass with thistles. I left the grass grow back.


.

I spray my field edges with something like poast/centurion/select keeps the quack in check doesn't kill much else.

[blueversi]

Haven’t seeded anything yet here, yesterday was first day in the field trying to find a spot suitable to start on and it still needs a couple days. One neighbor has mudded in a few quarters other than that basically zero done in my immediate area. 10 Km north in the lighter land a bit more done but still very little progress for this time of year.

[biglentil]

From multiple snow events just over a week ago to 32C and 60k winds today and increasing to 36C on Thursday. Where's the middle ground this year? Was thinking about it, not sure how guys are making it pencil with 1300 urea, without sectional control and pot hole land. Glad I only do 3 quarters like that, neighbour out all spring burning diesel pumping sloughs out only to have em fill again with last week's inch of rain. Kinda like pissing into the wind isn't it?

Anyways keep that rad clean and AC charged up, I hope to finish today.