When was the last time it was dry?

[$short]

The end of sept 2009 it started to rain. Heck of a
crop that year but we have been soaking wet ever
since. We never finished harvest till into
November that year.

Yep, 2.5 years ago!

[freewheat]

Heck I STARTED combining in 2009 on
November flipping 6th!

2001-2003, excellent years with nice dry
sunshine!!!

[sumdumguy]

The eigthies were really dry for us. In 1980 we
disced down every acre of crop except for Laird
lentils on smf. 82 bad 86 pretty bad 88 a write-
off. 1990 dried out. Dust blowing. Terrible
memories!

[highwayman]

81 dry, 85 drought, 88 drought, 91 swamp, 92
August frost, 02 very good crop, last 10 years
very good crops in southwest/central sask. We
may not always be the top yielders but we will
take the quality hands down. WINK WINK

[fjlip]

IMHO the west/SW brown soils benefited the most with the zero till/direct seeding revolution we all embraced.
Clay holds moisture, our black loses moisture when dry.

Less tillage and snow trapping can conserve limited moisture to make a crop with timely seeding.
Excess moisture is IMPOSSIBLE to work with, delays field work reduces crop potential. Direct seeding in COLDER WETTER stubble covered black soils is a negative to early crop growth.

It's ALWAYS 4-5C warmer to the west/SW than the NE which slows our growing crops.

If wetter black soil areas had any advantage in maximum tillage/SMF, it's shifted to drier warmer areas with direct seeding.
Make sense?

[freewheat]

Makes alot of sense, Fj. Except for the
black soils losing all the moisture when
dry. Depends on texture I suppose. No-
till was good here, still is I think,
other than these bloody wet years. All
we need is historic weather to return.
You know 10-12 inches in the summer vs.
30 and 40 and more. I was a joke agger
as well, and let me tell you, the
brownies were a snobby bunch, laughing
cuz we had trees, etc. At that point
they were a jealous sort. Ran was
limited to them and we were in glory.
Now that they are getting our usual
historic weather, they catch a glimpse
of what we once had. lol Except they are
getting our weather with mighty fine
prices while we look on.

I had a guy from Kindersley tell me
once.... ahh never mind! lol

[highwayman]

With the overwhelming adoption of zero till in
western canada there are those that suggest that
this in itself has changed our weather patterns
indefinitely where as your "historic weather" may
be gone with the wind. Only time will tell.

[freewheat]

Never thought of that potential cause and
effect of no till. Yup, only time will
tell.

[hedgehog]

do those disker things work in the wet?
i would like to try them in scotland.
i bought a ford fw60 last year, and it was hopeless in the wet till i took the duals off.

[fjlip]

Depends on soil type. Diskers were popular in brown soil area. Not a wet area. Air seeders killed that idea.
Now hundreds are worthless sitting in the bushes or grass. Same with disk press drills.

[hedgehog]

what was a disc press drill?

min till is catching on in scotland, but it was abandoned last autumn as it was too wet to work, and everyone reverted to ploughing.

[fjlip]

Lots of pics here...
http://www.tractorhouse.com/list/list.aspx?manu=JOHN DEERE&mdltxt=9350