Got Done Harvest!!!

[farmaholic]

Finished today mid afternoon. Kids and my sister's kids want a bonfire, sleep in tomorrow(I really don't sleep late, but knowing I'm done I may be able to sneak in an extra hour or two of "restful sleep". ThanksGiving supper tomorrow and the Rider game. Feels good to be done. Lots of work to do yet, cleaning and servicing equipment, bunching flax straw, juggling a bit of grain, but the harvest urgency is over. Maybe even get the mobile pea cleaner in later this fall yet.

For those left harvesting, I hope you get the crop in and dry, take care and be safe.

[seabass]

Good to hear. We finished our beans tonite as well so 2014 harvest is a wrap. Been a long drawn out affair but feels good to have the pressure off now. Happy Thanksgiving all and finish up safely!

[fjlip]

Just a few fields left around our area, all is dry again. Ya, just try and sleep after a month of waking... need no alarm for a while.

[SASKFARMER3]

Looks like early harvest lights everywhere! We have just about 30% left to go.

[sumdumguy]

We also finished Sunday at 2:30. It's been a grind for us and everyone around here, but its amazing how nice it treashed yesterday.

The last two fields of Durum were fields that were burned black this spring for seeding otherwise we would not have got them seeded. Unlike the other 5 quarters that are grading a #5 with 4% Fus, these two fields will grade a #2, no Fus.
Its in the straw, not in the wind. Researchers who advocate direct seeding, did they ever think about harbouring disease?

[SASKFARMER3]

It is in the straw because fields worked black or burned are yielding way better. Did a quarter of later HRS and grading a #2 no Fuz. Its in the ground.

[agchat]

Well now, all those old farts ten to fifteen years ago that said the soil needed to be worked to control diseases and keep certain weeds from chemical resistance, and we called them stupid. I guess I am eating crow now.

[bucket]

Seems to me I read somewhere that when the Buffalo roamed the dirt was like summer fallow when they were done and there was the odd lightning strike causing a prairie fire.

Who would have thunk it.

[furrowtickler]

And the biggest con job was the carbon credit thing to top off zero till - in some cases you were penilized for working the soil - every one in ag from every angle had a hand in this.
We started to have issues 5-6 years ago and changed what we were doing. Full tillage every 3 - 4 years now.

[sumdumguy]

The Durum finished off properly too where it was burned black. Outyielded the other and nice sample. But, at seeding time, when we made our isolation strip and lit her up about 10 neighbour trucks came barreling over, mad as stuffed pigs. Guess they never saw the torches come out. It was fairly common nearer to Regina to see solid stubble fires throughout the years. After they saw us seeding, when they were plugged solid a few decided to try it. My grandparents used to add ash to the garden long ago to keep the onions and potatoes from rotting. There may be something there too.

[furrowtickler]

I believe there is much more to it as well. That thatch layer is a host of many bed things in wetter years.

[sumdumguy]

Funny thing to see all these new fall tillers being pulled every which way on the highway. What happened to no-till and the erosion story? I think it is all a theory sold to perpetuate the cheap food cycle. Produce more cheap food cause if you don't your soil will blow away. Doesn't matter that you need high clearance sprayers to spray the hell out of it. This and all the boola with carbon fuels causing global warming. Anyone remember 2/3 cropping? I don't know about you, but our bins were full.

As an aside: I bet Parsley doesn't have Fuz.

[wmoebis]

Would be interesting to see stats on quality from organic / conv. by the CGC.

[farmaholic]

The old method of summerfallow did more damage to this farm than I care to admit. Between wind and water erosion it has taken its toll. Continuous cropping has made things better but comes with a new set of challenges: increased costs and disease pressures in these last few wet years. Adapt adapt adapt, maybe not intense summerfallow but some tillage may not be the end of the world. When the dry cycle returns, and I'm sure it will, no till continuous cropping won't suffer the problems we're facing today. Back to moisture conservation and less disease, maybe less grain but probably better quality and hopefully better prices. The system that was developed in the Eighties isn't working real well in this wet cycle. High maintenance verticle tillage tools(after several years of use) will be sitting on fence lines or in hedge rows when it dries up again but for now it is exactly what the doctor ordered!!! We will go it again without tillage for 2015, I know the limitations of my farm and we have varying soil the short distance our farm is spread across. Light to a more clay base and everything in between. We also haven't suffered the severe wetness some others have been dealing with, we've had about 15 inches of rain this season, the land has moisture in it and some low spots(unseeded) really never got much smaller from seeding in spring and others in the lighter land disappeared but will likely be full next spring. So, 2015 could be a totally different year, we might be relying on the subsoil or cursing the rain that does come and sometimes relentlessly. Let's hope we all get the rain we need and not in excess. I would definitely welcome a year without the disease pressure we've been encountering. Funny how out 2014 durum was so good, yield and quality, and 2015 is the exact opposite(even with all the fungicide applications). Just goes to show who is boss, all you can do is play the cards you've been dealt the best you know how but Mother Nature still plays the last card, and is the dealer....

Happy ThanksGiving Everyone!!!

Take Care...

[Braveheart]

I was very involved with Pesticide Free Production back when. The research showed that having an understory growth of clover or hairy vetch, something under seeded, did keep fus levels lower as the sores got caught in the understory and had trouble making it to the head. There still are spores in the atmosphere to infect though.

Best solution is rotation, sowing varieties that have some resistance, and properly timed fungicides.

Burning or tillage will only degrade the soil. Yes there is wind and water erosion.

The biggest erosion comes from tillage erosion. Those things on the bottom of cultivators are called shovels. They move dirt. Most fields around here are rolling and tilling neighbours have pulled soil off knolls down to b-horizon. Read Dr. David Lobb's thesis ( U of M) re tillage erosion.

Bored Hutterites fill ditches with topsoil every winter. If anyone can't see that will be a problem, I just don't know what to say.