What did 2010 teach you?

[gustgd]

Well we finished harvest 2010 today and looking back this is what I learned or confirmed.

Don't mud it in (late) Next year if we're not done seeding by the 10th-15th of June.. we will be

Fungicides pay.
Headline on Barley Quilt on SWS Quilt and Headline work the same in lentils. Lance worked better than Dual
We never treated the canola and Sclorotinia kicked the Shat out of the canola.
I think next year everything might get treated.

Seeding depth matters. We had a field with three different seeders on it and one was a little deep, maybe half inch. I think it cost me $50.00/acre in lost yield.

I'll think of more, but those three are a good start.

For those of you with crop still out there, stay safe.
G

[silverback]

We learned that we could have grown a better wheat crop in Whitehorse than Calgary.

What do you suppose the farmland is like there?

[jethro456]

If there is 7 inches of rain in the forcast, seed
shallow.
I think seeding depth would be my number one
lesson learned. Our best crop is where we
seeded in the pouring rain and the mud on the
drill caused it to sprinkle the seed on top of the
ground.

[SASKFARMER3]

Well worst crop in 40 years Canola is a fricking disgrace in all years we grew it has never been this fricking bad. FLODDED SHIT doesn't grow. Mud mud mud.
We will be close a 100000 bushels less this year, compared to what we grew the last two years. That's $1,116,000.00 less income and if one wants to bet what we will get out of any of the fed programs Ill bet it will be nothing.
So what did i learn When mother nature screw you from spring right up till harvest take a sip of your rum and forget about this fricking crop.
Don't over spend on a worthless crop. You cant make shit out of flooded out crap.
Ah ps on it 7 more days and I can call it quits and good fricking riddance to 2010.

[wd9]

Whatever i learned in 2010 probably won't work next year because the year will be very different is what 2010 taught me.

[sawfly]

ergot likes clearfeild wheat.
side by side abound lillian
seeded one after other.
abound about one ergot per handful
lillian you really have to look to find one.

neighbour with Imangine wht. lots of ergot . my lillian in same area is good

[Hopperbin]

I learned my older combines and swathers will just have to stay for yet another year. A 20 foot rope works great for pulling a grain truck behind a tractor without anyone in the truck. Hopper augers were a plus when the truck sank.
Cargill special canola contracts can be used for ass wipe. 900 rubber on tractor kicks ass. Having crop insurance would have been better than the none I had. Can actually rent 3 quarters to a neighbor for nothing to grow green feed and be glad for having done it.

[grrrr]

What everyone should already know is, "put something away for a rainy day". I know some of you will jump all over me for this but hey, in this area we just had the two best crops we ever had in '08 and '09. Now we have a year that isn't as good and people are screaming for a payout. These are the same people that drove up the purchase and rental price of land this spring. Up 20% in one year. I have no sympathy for these guys.

[SASKFARMER3]

You are right GRRRR I have a little stash of Canola left and Oats and Durum and Cash. But what ps me off is the relentless rain just wouldn't quit this year. I have never bitched about rain and still wont but when you look at crops over the last 40 to 50 years and the smallest one is caused by rain. That just amazes me. The years it froze we still had crop on higher elevation fields. But this year our highest best drained fields were the shits. Our few poorer fields produced like a trooper. But one problem was having all land in a 10 mile radius. Hail hit 50 out of 60 and when it rained 3 inches at time all farm was hit from every storm.

[tipsy]

My lessen learn't, a field or 2 of chemfallow or recrection tillage is a good thing.

[mbratrud]

Never take your foot off the gas!

[ado089]

-Some neighbors are amazing and others are *****.
-Bigger is better when it comes to rubber.
-Seed shallow, fertilize deep.
-Harvest wheat is crap in wet conditions, Ergot and leaf disease ran rampant.
-7120 is not worht $h!t for combining said wheat.
-After two feet of rain stop throwing good money after bad, after three feet go fishing for a week.
-If you fertilize for 45 bu/ac canola you'll get 45 bu canola, if fertilize for 60 you'll have to lie about your yield.
-Seeding all your canola in 5 days and putting in the early maturing last results in a stressful week of swathing.
-It doesn't matter because it will all be different next year.

[grgsrvc]

"It doesn't matter because it will all be different next year."

Never has more true words been uttered then these. The joys of
farming. ah yes.