How will Seeding Delays effect your farm?

[SASKFARMER3]

Just wondering with the excess moisture in Northern Sask how will this effect each farmers spring plans.
On our farm if we loose the first week of may then Durum acres will be dropped and replaced by more Barley.
If we loose week two then Canola acres will be dropped and replaced by more Peas.
Just got one drill out of the field into the yard, the second is still in a snow bank.
Tried taking the Mechanical tractor out in field enough said. I walked back home.

[Steve_Winkler]

I think tow ropes are going to be the hot commodity this spring. We just got yet another late spring storm here SE of Calgary and it is very wet. My septic field is saturated and my sump pump clicks on every 45 minutes. The fields are a bloody mess, sloughs are connecting and in our case I don't think we'll turn a wheel until after May 1st, maybe later. More barley acres around here if this crap weather continues, just not enough frost free days for much else.

Cheers,

Steve

[agstar77]

We have the opposite problem, very little subsoil moisture ,no wet spots, seeding starting this week.

[agstar77]

I just walked out in the field, chem-fallow from being unseeded last year. The water running out of a lake to the north, which until last year was unknown to have an outlet, has eroded in a natural run, at least a 20 foot wide, by four foot deep gulley. it is not pretty. We have 8 foot snow drifts feeding the lake which need to melt, and therefore, there is no sign of this previously non existing river letting up. We're screwed at least until the water quits running, and this trench can be repaired, as access to most of my other land can only be across this new river. I have not priced a bushel for fall, and will not until the seed is in the ground, and maybe then only maybe. I got a half section of winter wheat seeded, and now it is all cut up by this and other gullies. I think it won't be until late May at the earliest that we can get out there, and this is if and only if the rain quits, and the sun shines with 20 degree days.
What a frustrating career to have chosen, and now that decent prices are there, no advantage can be taken of them.

[parsley]

Began seeding on Friday.

Parsley

[Burbert]

Gents, maybe less seeded, will in the long run, be a good thing. Lower fertilizer use, cause we can't afford it anyways, less crop produced, will support markets. The worst thing that we could do, is buy the expensive inputs and seed a giant crop cause grain prices are starting to climb now. Big crop production will stall the value of grain, and ultimately drive it down AGAIN!!!

[sawfly]

its maddness , i just bought 46-0-0 for some winter wheat. 580$ tonne
57 cents a pound of N

if i didn't have the rest of my N bought I'D seed wall to wall peas. and lock them in.

[sawfly]

To have unseeded land one year is one thing, but to go two years is another. The water can not sink in. It must evaporate, but with the amount of material on the surface, the sun doesn't reach the soil.

It is never a good thing to be too wet to seed, especially two years in a row, and especially with such damaging erosion.

$65 bucks an acre must cover: spraying and tillage costs, land rent, land payments, machinery payments, etc. etc.

Take off 30 or so for rent, and there is precious little left for the rest. It will be the end of the road for many guys, and maybe me. That is how it will affect my farm. Bring on the heat!!!

[skhadenuf]

In the same boat "almost literally" as you cwbcostme$$$. The 65 an acre for unseeded acres was actually much less than that due to seeding intensity and crop insurance claw back with the ridiculous 5% surcharge. On most farms around our area the survival cost to keep things going varied from 110 to 125 bucks an acre. But thanks to Mr. Wartman and I hate to say a few from down south that stated we are better off with the 65 dollars an acre than seeding and also stated that you don't need more to keep a farm going, the conservatives used his stupidity as an excuse not to come through on their own pledge to more than the 15 dollar acre amount. Up in our area that was a promise made and broken, that cost many their farms already. Also just heard about the difference in crop insurance coverage between Manitoba and Sk. I believe it is about 75 bucks an acre difference, there is obviously a serious mental problem with the NDP government and their ag policy here. To those who have the drought down south, we had that for two years in a row a few years ago, and I don't want to get into it too much because I know it's not a good situation but it pales drastically in comparison to being not just wet but saturated wet with the erosion etc. When we had the drought the only thing to come out of Regina was our ag minister stating crop insurance will save everything. It was crap then and still is. If we get any amount of our normal 2 to 3 inch spring rain we'll be done again, and just like last year some on lighter land that hooked up 2 four wheel drives and drug their air drills around the fields only to loose that crop also by the later rains. That was after they broke sprayer wheels off bouncing through the ruts and then wondered how to swath through them also.

[kamichel]

We are very wet some acres around here not planted last year look very wet. I have a half section of it, a small amount compared to others. My plan is to harrow all my land as soon as I can get out there. Considered taking the crop ins. this year for the 50 dollar per acre payment if unseeded. But looks now the guys that waited for dryer ground are no better off, the dry ground never came.
Funny thing about it was the one neighbour that never planted 2500 acres, over half his land was the only one able to purchase my other neighbour's bins. And not use them.I think you guys that never planted got enough. What about us that planted in the mud? Hardest spring I ever had. After planting around the water there was just small triangles left to plant. More fuel, same seed, same fert, same chemical, machinery wearing out. Maybe I should get paid 65 dollars an acre for actually getting the crop in the ground. I could be in trouble here but I thought I have a point. My safety net is the Caise program, still works for me better than crop ins. wish some of my fields were dust like the caise program.

[skhadenuf]

The 65 bucks wasn't 65 bucks more like 50 bucks an acre. Levelling off the erosion ate up a good chunk of that. We took out transmission in the combine the fall before, needed a backhoe to get the machine out in the end. We had some acres seeded as well but were more than happy not to have to do anything with those acres until harvest, mind you there was nothing there to harvest as it rotted most of it.
You are right you should have gotten more but that should have come through a more decent crop insurance that would cover those inputs. As example the 220 bucks an acre coverage on canola in Manitoba not the crap program we have here in Saskatchewan where last year and the year before I believe the averaged coverage for canola was 80 to 90 bucks an acre. If there was a crop insurance and revenue insurance that guaranteed over 200 bucks for crops we wouldn't need the slow cais and the thousands of employees there.
We went through the wet harvest scenerio the year before and totally sympathize with you but 65 bucks an acre doesn't get anyone through.

[skhadenuf]

One other thing I thought of but forgot to mention, is that well cared for chem-fallow from last year has from 0 to 20 pounds of N available according to soil test. Unlike during a drought when the n stays put for when it rains again. Not to mention weed pressures etc.