if saturday does not get us

[Hopperbin]

We will agree to dissagree. We all know a crop swathed a day before a frost will have sustansially less damage than a day after I hope. The decision gets difficult when the crop not ready to swath. Number 3 wheat us not much a deduction at the moment. A dollar fifty deduction to number 4 or feed is insentive to swath. There is no swathed wheat germating around here yet. I can see popcorn being popular tonight.

[Hopperbin]

Frost scare seems to have diminished a bit.

[Hopperbin]

Frost scare seems to have diminished a bit.

[Hopperbin]

Dammit klause. Stay out of the field your a rain magnet. Its heading for you. You gonna get it done?

[fjlip]

1983 20 minutes of golf ball hail and plow wind destroyed crops. Standing was worse, swathed still half there, combined dry. Swathed canola 8 bu/acre, standing was summerfallow. In 1993 a foot of snow flattened all standing crop. Lots was cut ONE way, first and only year we needed lifters. Swathed stuff only bleached. Too cold to sprout. In 2005 lost several hundred acres of malt, sprouted in the head standing, humid, showers and hot! Everything works sometime NOTHING works all the time. Mother F*cking Nature dictates results.

[agchat]

With new auto sensing technology... No offense Tom but not all of us have the latest and greatest technology. I do pray your reply is not "maybe you should not be farming then".. I have wheat ripe now, but as long as it does not start to break down, i will straight it. If it starts breaking down I will swath in a heartbeat. Also Freewheat you probably have had a many later harvests than I have. Will a heavy wet snow not lay dead heavey ripe wheat flatter than piss on a plate? Oh ya, last reason,around here i do all the dirty and manual work, any time I do get some help, running a pickup header is much more relaxing than a straight header.

[freewheat]

Yep ag chat, a heavy wet snow will flatten crops. But a light 3 or 4 incher will finish any hope of swathed crop, and if the wind wiggles the crop and the snow ends up on the ground, the standing stuff is not a write off.

Come the 10th or so of October, if the crop is not ready, or heavy snow is forecast, I can and will swath.

This area is always late, always wet, and always a grind.

For me, leaving it stand has always been WAY better than laying it down. I have straight cut some pretty darn gnarly tangled and flat oats many times. I have combined wheat and flax straight with snow on the ground several times. I have lost more crops that I laid down at the "optimal" swath time, only to have it rain for the rest of the season. If it is standing, it will be dryer sooner after rains.

Yes, hail and wind, and lodging can occur. But in 23 years, I have never seen hail outside of July. Now anything can happen, but I am simply playing percentages. And for me, my chance at better grades and dryer grain, always occur if it is left standing.

After tomorrows rain, my neighbors swathed barley will be absolutely soaked. A bit of wind, and my standing stuff will be dry sooner, guaranteed. And it is far less likely to sprout standing up than laying down. I have combined malt quality barley on October 26th, after standing through a month or more of steady rain. That was 2005. The swathed stuff was junk.

So for me, standing is 9 and a half times out of ten, better than swathed.

My conditions are not typical remember. This is not the dry plains, this is the stinking wet and cool parklands.

Results may vary!

[sumdumguy]

Has anyone tried gowth regulating chemicals on crops?

[freewheat]

I think Klause has.

[agchat]

Wont argue about barley, never did like to swath that stuff. Sprouts away to easy.

[Klause]

We use Ethrel.


Manipulator or whatever they call it is snake oil. Doesn't do anything.


Ethrel shortens straw. Strengthens the spikelets and eliminates lodging.


You have to be so careful with staging though.

we couldn't get to the wheat on time but did do the oats. Everyone else's is flat ours stands great

[sumdumguy]

Interesting, this year would have been the year to do some trials. With all this moisture, there is plenty of straw. Klause, can you comment on yield ?