snow

[Braveheart]

I agree that when it's wet, it's wet not matter farming styles.

Drew's forecast is favorable for your areas, so, hopefully he's right.

[grassfarmer]

Aren't you near Wawota Parsley? I see Wawota has recorded an average annual precip of 18.38" between 2000 and 2012.

Both Wadena and Wynyard which I assume are close to SF3 recorded 18.44" over the same time period. That must span a lot of your 8 year flood SF3 eh?

Rimbey, Alberta recorded 20.69" over the same decade and that is the driest decade recorded here since settlement.

I guess I can't imagine how wet it gets in SK, LOL.

All figures taken from http://www.worldweatheronline.com

Useful site if you are interested in facts not fiction.

[farmaholic]

I have a variety of soil textures on our modest size farm. Some of our land can take on alot of water other stuff not so much when its already saturated it only accumulates, where the sandy stuff just "soaks" away. Saturation is saturation. We went into last fall with the soil profiles fuller than the fall before.

One day at a time and I'm not going to worry about what "might" happen.

[freewheat]

grass guy, you never got that in the worst years, there were over 40 inches twice. Also, it changes literally in a 5 miles stretch, so weather stations weather smations. Heck, I run one, and I know what happens on my doorstep is not what happens at wynyard. Wynyard is MUCH drier than here, yet it is only 40 miles away. They are two and three soil zones different.

[Klause]

Grass try Melville / Fort Quappele


18 inches eh?

We had 17.2 last year in May/June/July not counting snow or all the rain in September.


Average rainfall for mellville is 514mm or 20 inches. According to environment and stats canada The average over the flood years was 250 to 310%.

That's 50 to 60 inches.

[freewheat]

After two 40 inch years, every tenth ran off the land. You simply are missing the point. And trying to tell us how much it rained is silly. It is variable, and using wynyard numbers is plain silly for the reasons above.

After the initial nasty years, less rain is still flooding the land, because of saturation. And it takes less rain to cause flooding after it is that wet. The type of weather pattern, where the sun does not show for weeks, exacerbates the issue. A 6 day drizzle, maybe only brings a total of an inch, but on hyper saturated soils, it is unbelievable.

I don't understand why you are arguing against those of us who lived it.

When water is running under the snow in October, and does not stop all winter, and then you get 6 feet of snow on top of that, you are screwed.

[jake550]

More proof of lack of experience (and something else which is to rude to say) from grassfarmer. We had 8 inches here in 3 hours July 6, 2013 and the nearest town/weather station is 9 miles away and they recorded 1.5 inches. So yes it does vary wildly within a few miles.

[freewheat]

20 inches, with dry periods and sun between, no problem. But if the pattern is for an inch of drizzle with ZERO drying between rainfalls, it simply takes less rain to saturate the soil.

Our area average rainfall is right at 20-21 inches. Until 2006, this was never a problem, except in the 50's there were some wetter than normal years. But there is usually some SUNSHINE between the weekly inch of rain.

[farmaholic]

If I was you, I would quit defending yourselves against people who refuse to listen and whose main goal is to discredit you and prove you wrong.

[grassfarmer]

How does that work Klause? Site I quoted shows Melville as 18.38" 2000-2012 average. If you had even one year at 60 inches that would add 4" per year over the decade so how come it doesn't show up?
Fort Quappele doesn't have data on that site maybe SF3 smashed the equipment in his rage?

[freewheat]

Grass, a little story for you. In 2012, I was heading out to seed some land of mine 7 miles from my home. I put the wings up on the drill, and BANG it poured. We got over an inch in about 5 minutes. The creek was running again. I shut the tractor off, and went to go down the road to see if there was a hope to still head out to seed. Took the truck. I got 200 yards south of my driveway, and the road was dusting.

That, my friend, is how it works. That is why recording sites can have very different results from the general region. Heck, 10 miles to the south that year, they had a bit more than half the rain we had.

In 2001-03, we grew some of the best crops ever on this farm, while 7 miles northwest, it was a disaster for dryness. They could't buy a rain. We were almost too wet.

If you have been farming at all, you would recognize that weather can vary enormously in a very short distance...

[grassfarmer]

I accept that variation freewheat but equally you can't claim every weather station is missing all the rain. By a law of averages some of the weather stations must get deluged worse than the surrounding area.