WTF its White and its a good sise area this morning!

[Hopperbin]

14 days sounds about right. Interesting no one knew when it actually snowed just that it was sometime over night.

[Klause]

I'm gonna swing by tomorrow morning Hopper...

We pulled in around 2 AM... had probably started an hr or two earlier as there wasn't much on the ground yet.

The Leroy highway was all slush already though.

[gregpet]

Well I guess we finally lucked out in our area. Decided to go away on a road trip to Minneapolis.
Left Friday, got home tonight. Very wet in the areas we drove through. Zero field work being
done along the way. Coming home today rain in Fargo to Portage La Prairie, then heavy snow all
the way to Theodore, Sk. Got home and a lot of snow melted here over the weekend. Light runoff
now and we had no snow at all. Feel for everyone else, we got that 12" of wet shit last year in the
beginning of May. Hopefully it warms up like they are forecasting.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

This has to be a first. I was in the
field on April 28, while the rest of the
prairies were under snow drifts, this is
as far west as you can get, about the
lowest heat units on the prairies, and
the wetest west of Manitoba. I don't
say that to rub salt in the wounds, but
to point out how odd the weather has
been. It has still been far below
average temps, but we got a few days of
a huge drying wind, snow still in the
ditches, but the fields are thawed out
and drying. Well actually, I was
plowing and you can do that underwater.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

There are a few comments here about how
many years of wet you have had to
endure, which reminded me of another
thread I started in another forum.
About when/how to accept that the
climate trend has changed, and what you
would do as a farmer. We do it all the
time in recent years, but that is
because the weather had been getting
more favorable, what happens when it
goes the other way, or maybe it already
is, global cooling anyone?

http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-
view.asp?
tid=316925&posts=20&highlight=climate&hi
ghlightmode=1#M2470268

[charliep]

Something to help make it through the snow. From an email I got.

This lady wrote a song about this never ending winter, kind of brightens the day.
She farms near Moose Jaw.

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4vpSVu7Kxo"]We're Taking Back Our Summer[/URL]

[freewheat]

Alberta farmer 5, good posts there. You and us must have near identical climates by the
sounds of it, we are wet, and have a short cold climate. We get red river valley
rainfall, with Yellowknife heat units!lol.

As far as accepting climate shifts: I get what you are saying:
I am not positive this wet crap is a long term shift yet, but I am planning for it by
getting into the sheep business. I will farm one way or another. The reason I think the
trend will shift back, is simply that for the previous hundred years, this area was the
garden spot. 1988? Great crops. The 1930's, great crops. 2001-2002? Excellent crops.
From 1928 to 2003, this area was one of the best, most consistent areas in western
Canada to seed a crop and ensure yourself a good crop. And then it all went to snot.

So I am not sure if it is the new normal, I sure hope not, but just to give you some
background as to why it is hard to potentially have to accept this potential climate
trend to wetter than historical.

And again, I am planning for the potential of it by raising animals on grass with low
inputs, low labor. I have room to do both, but if it really is a new normal for climate,
in a few years, I would be busy planting grass, and making fences...

[checking]

Regrets will come this summer that we also missed it.

[bgmb]

Makes a guy want to drop a match on every acre in the fall...

[BTO_farmall]

Geg,

Ya Stop and Wave Ta All The Farmers Down in The Bottom of The Diversion When You Drove Through Portage???? Had Tractors, Cultivators, More Tractors, You Name It, It Was Down There. Were Protestin Against Openin The Flood Gates, Myself Woulda Opened The Gates n' Washed er' All Down The River, F#ck The Farmer!!!!!!!!! Say, Gotta Lotta Custom Work Lined Up Fer DumbBroad Acre Farms This Spring?????

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/manitoba-farmers-protest-portage-diversion-1.1258837?playVideo

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Freewheat, sounds like you have a very
good idea. I wonder how many, if any
other farmers have a contingency plan?
Nearly all of us western Canadians are
farming on the edge of the productive
farmland as far as climate in concerned,
then we push the limits even further
with long season crops. It would take
very little change in temp or growing
season length to make most of us
unviable. Could this be a taste of what
is to come, or will this year be just an
anomaly as the relentless global warming
keeps progressing until we are growing
pinapples at the 60th parallel? My plan
is to hope that global warming is real,
while preparing for the opposite to
happen.