First year I can ever remember no -40

[ALLFARMER]

Been way up north here for 9 years now and this
has been the best winter so far. Made some
money hauling logs and shift changing from
home...aka sleep in my own bed not some noisy
cheap motel. Finished that and have now
already been around with the cat the 3 new
quarters I bought. If we have another dry
summer the extra pasture will come in handy. 3.5
miles of fence to build....may or may not get done
this summer. Found a beaver dam that must be
700 feet long .... eviction time boys! Yup every
winter my tractor stayed 4 or 5 days in my
neighbors heated shop, but not this year. By next
winter my heated shop will be finished and winter
projects will be enjoyable in heated comfort.

Gotta love that climate change )

[SADIE]

Just a post Allfarmer---GOTTA love your ambition!!!!

[forage]

Wish we could say the same in the southwest country -35 with wind chills to -40 for a week. Got to get my shop heated this year. Pole frame 100x60 think to save a pile of money I well subdivide into hot and cold storage.Good luck with yours.

[BTO_farmall]

I love Breaking Beaver Dams. The Best Part is, Yous get to do it again The Next Day, And The Next, And The Next, And The Next, The Fun Never Ends. Mind Me Asking Where yous Moved up from 9 Years Ago???? Me To All, Ambition is a Way of Life, Its a Mind Set, Get er' Done Before The Hutts Get er' All, Theys Comin Hard, HARD fer The Big Peace, And Theys'll Get er', Less Guys Step up To The Plate and send Them Sob's Packin.............

[ALLFARMER]

Thanks Sadie

Forage the standard 40 x 60 is likely plenty big
enough, my neighbor just put one up that size. I
decided on 30 x 88 maybe should have went 40
wide but as the carpenter I later hired said "your
not a carpenter" lol. Anyway 30 wide I can easily
put two feeding tractors side by side and a 4
wheel drive further in for says to push snow. Plan
to be feeding silage once economies of scale
warrant it. On tractor with tmr screw mixer feeder
and the other tractor for loading bales and silage
into tmr wagon. This will likely be bale shredder
tractor also.

BTO originally from High Ridge/Hazel Bluff area,
about 1 hr north of Edmonton

[ALLFARMER]

BTO you's better get you self a gun! My brother
in law went hunting beavers one Sunday
afternoon bout 5 years ago, shot 7. If they run an
hide just open up their dam a little, they will soon
be back, 2 or 3 guys aimed up all fire at
once....beaver got no chance. Have seen zero
beavers in that area since.

No Hutterite colony's in this county. But the big
boys goin real hard, neighbor has 90 quarters of
land just put the dirt from his drainage ditch on
my land...gunna have to have a chat.

[forage]

Better to have the dirt than the drainage water!!!
What is the economics of buying and clearing land, then drainage ditchs and fencing? The land must fairly reasonable to start with.

[ALLFARMER]

I paid 110k for all 3, have a block of 7 now,
nearly was 9. To the east of me is an untouched
township so if I can get my stuff all goin when the
day comes that the gov decides to sell that (could
be 1 to 15 years) then I will have my hands full
of more connected land to buy.

If you hire land clearing about 40k/quarter with
big wood on it. My land is mainly large willow,
some spruce, birch. This land 20 years ago was
a whole lot wetter then it is today. I bought a
D6D 3 years ago and have cut and piled a half
section with it. Work worth about 65k if hired paid
37k for the machine. gotta get goin she's gotta
roll again today! Cheers!

[grassfarmer]

"This land 20 years ago was a whole lot wetter then
it is today"

That's something to think about Allfarmer because
clearing the trees is going to make it drier still.
Looks to me like you are fighting nature on a big
scale turning muskeg and bush into farmland in an
area with an extreme climate. I've never found it
very economic to fight nature - she usually wins
every time.

[ALLFARMER]

O muskeg here. I am but a small player in this
land clearing game. The buddy of mine who
bought 9 quarters for 1.3 mill last fall/winter has it
all cut and is 24 hrs/day finishing piling (5 cats)
He will be in to his land 200,000/quarter before
he plants er. The other guy by me bought 26
quarters plus his boys & son in law like around
30 quarters also have it all cut and piled
already. The big boys bye me bought about 40 or
50 quarters (3 of their own cats) are about 3/4 or
more done. All land that with the right inputs
would grow a 40 bushel canola crop.

[gaucho]

Forget Brazil... what you guys are doing up there is nuts and I can bet in about less than 10 years someone will say should never have left her in trees. Allfarmer you should listen to yourself with plans of a tractor for this, one for that and another for that. Have you ever herd of the fact that cows are suppose to work for you and not be on a social welfare program. If you want to be successful in ranching it doesn't come from burning... it comes from working with nature and not fighting it

[ALLFARMER]

Fact is we live in a hungry world, with some
220,000 more hungry mouths to feed every day.
The 750 quarters that got sold up here is
peanuts to the the amount of land up here that
could be farmed. Trees don't make money, cows
don't eat trees, cows don't produce arable land.
Work with nature....I am I have a big caterpillar
workin for me. Lol Boys millions of starving
people millions of acres of arable land. Trees
don't pay taxes, crop production does. The world
needs cheap food, paying 400,000 for a central
Alberta quarter drives us to look to alternative
land and makes land clearing feasible.

[sumdumguy]

Where are you allfarmer? What soil class under
the trees?

[smcgrath76]

AF - you are certainly ambitious and nature is resilient enough that you may skate a long way before she bites back.
We all manage ecosystems in different ways. Your methodology strikes me as likely to be shorter term, or perhaps
longer term higher expense and challenging to maintain. I always take each expense and divide by the number of cows
without amortizing the expense. It gives a pretty good idea of how much baggage you are packing on the cow's back.
Fighting nature creates a pretty big weight...
Expense adds risk to a risky venture...

[ALLFARMER]

Just did a quick count of the tractors on this
place....looks like 6 so far. I worked on a John
Deere dealers farm as a kid for 9 years and not a
word of a lie I bet he has 75 tractors. Check out
the tractor museum next time your through
Westlock Doc just a little south west of the Ufa
fuel.

Grassfarmer, I was at pioneer acres Irricana last
summer, you gotta see the iron them boys got!
Also they have an old time slaughter house which
tells the story of an old time beef ring. One
animal a week got butchered everyone in the
community got a piece. Take the drive....bring
cash, no debit!