zero till

[hedgehog]

does zero till increase liklihood of waterlogging and crop failure?

[Partners]

In a wet yr. YES....Even over packing hurts in a wet yr...That Blower truck canola looks the Best of any canola crop we have seen this yr...Looks like 40 from the road....

[bigsteve]

I'm thinking that we will have to go away from direct seeding till this 400% of normal rainfall straightens out?

[fjlip]

All the cultivators at Hodgins were double last years prices. I think we are all on the same page. Any untilled chem fallow is WATER from end to end. Rip it up, knock down or BURN all the stubble. Hoping for blowing dust all winter or this area is screwed for next year's seeding. Culverts are running full, if they freeze up that way, our roads are gone next spring. Beavers major issue here, just got back from supervising backhoe unplugging culverts in a C&D ditch. It is full but slow moving due to solid cattail and grass growth!

[newguy]

The guys that preworked in the spring instead of burnoff and seed did not get a whole lot seeded this year.

[ry0972]

Fields/patches that got Tandem disced soaked up this last 2-3 inches pretty good but it mite be a week or two before you can attempt to drive across them.
Anyone know what the Carbon credits are trading at lately?? Rumors that they mite double to 10X more when cap and trade takes effect. Some guys mite be writing BIG cheques if they start working and burning
ground and have to buy back credits they sold!!! That scam will break a few guys in the future i'm sure.

[gregpet]

Or not

<a href="http://s647.photobucket.com/albums/uu197/thecandianeh/?action=view&current=ccx_endofday_100109.png&q uot; target="_blank"></a>

[fjlip]

Fields tilled last fall were drier and the crops are a lot better now. That's partly a solution when WET. Less snow depth helps. Yes, fertilizing wasted valuable time when seeding window slammed on May 21, but my standing stubble fields were "greasy snot" when I was doing that, as in TOO F'ING WET TO SEED.

I like this wide text look, just because of your chart, gregpet? Wish view was adjustable.

[SASKFARMER3]

Here is an observation. Us and another guy are the longest no tillers in our area. Land that was burnt black will produce a decent crop. Land double harrowed last fall this spring will do OK land strait seeded into heavy trash a complete disaster.

[stubblejumper]

lets turn agriculture back 100 years

[fjlip]

Organic guys still use moldboard plows here, is that turned back far enough? We must change with conditions or we are done. Zero till conserves moisture, the last thing a lot of land needs right now!

[grgsrvc]

Just need some perennial crops like
pasture. Oh yeah most of you grain guys
are too good for critters. Hate to break
it to you triple A farmers but April,
August and Arizona is not reality. Put up
some fence, buy a few ruminants, and be
happy that its raining again...

[jensend]

exactly. if i had my way every year would be a lot like this.

[fjlip]

WRONG, not a perfect solution, haying was a fight all summer, most normally hayed areas flooded. Crop was cut and baled or silage. Pens were slop up to their bellies. Pastures look cultivated. Now they CAN NOT move the bales till ground freezes, neighbor buried MFWD just moving bales in the field. Many bales sitting in water. WET is NO picnic for the cattle guys either. Just like every grain grower and all town folks with wrecked and flooded basements, RM's with terrible roads, TOO MUCH RAIN IS A PAIN IN THE A**!

[jensend]

just making the point that this ain't all bad. i've got 400 acres didn't get baled but i don't get $30/ac for too wet. i'll still get some use out of it by swath grazing or carryover but it took until the end of june before we started to fill sloughs. grainfarming encourages runoff. the grainland we've taken over the sloughs have dried up for the most part because we get the water into the soil instead of running all over my and the neighbour's land. a lot of the sloughs we have left are recharged from neighbouring grain land. in the meantime i've got more grass than ever and next year we'll need a couple hundred more cows.