Winter Wheat in Northern Alberta

[TOM4CWB]

Ianben;

We just finished one 100ha field, good yeild about 5.4t/ha... made our JD9650W really snort... 3mph on 22ft.

I know, we should have a New Holand, but the straw is over 1.3t/ha as well... simply amazing what can happen when everything goes well... we thought it was much too dry early... but obviously the Winter Wheat has the ability to really convert late moisture into grain, in the last three weeks before maturity!

Hope everything is going well across the pond...

[TOM4CWB]

Forgot my metric converson on the straw... should be 3t/ha...

Some fields are not quite this good, but we have another 50ha that could be even better!

Now, if the CWB would only pay a decent price... sold some #1CWRW into the feed market... at 133/t farm... what do you think Charlie... is the CWB going to do any better?

[charliep]

Sounds like a good deal to me. Current PRO for 1CWRW (regular - not special contract) is about $155/t port/$110/t Alta. I wouldn't even consider delivering anything to the CWB this year without using the 90 % EPO (cheap put at $2/t). That puts the up front payment at $92/t. So the decision becomes do I sell today for $133/t and bank it (I think you said picked price as well) or do I take $40/t less now and hope for $15 final payment (or whatever the number is). I would take the money now in the non board and if I were optimistic about prices, invest in some calls. I will leave whether this is a good strategy to others analysis.

[melvill]

tom, if we're going to get a better price for winter wheat we've got to do two things (according to buyer at the mills I talked to:
1) dramatically improve the milling quality of the winter wheat we grow, and
2) tell the milling and baking community about that after we've done it.

Last week I talked to three millers in western Canada. ADM in Medicine Hat doesn't mill any winter wheat - "crappy flour quality". Robin Hood in Saskatoon mills about 5000 tonnes of winter wheat, all for one buyer. RH had the same response - poor milling quality. Ellison says that we've got enough winter wheat now for their needs unless milling and baking quality improves dramatically.

Let's hope the new higher milling quality winter wheats take over and that still higher quality varieties are waiting in the wings. Then can do things.

Tom, have any trouble getting the bearded wheat to feed into your yellow-and-green? Talked to a guy who did. Don't know the color of combine but he said all those stiff beards wouldn't feed toward the centre of the cutting table!

[TOM4CWB]

Lee;

We have not had a real problem with feeding since our flex headers have been equiped with fingers across the whole auger... as well if the wheat is really dry (11-12%), then this is much more of an issue.

I guess we should send some samples to the mills of our Osprey... it would be interesting to see what they think... what a massive amount of straw...

[melvill]

Interesting that you have had trouble feeding, too. This producer wasn't using a flex header. However, he did say that his crop was extremely dry. Our neighbor is having trouble getting extremely dry straight-cut barley to feed, too. Drought gets us everywhere.

Are you a member of the Alberta Winter Wheat Growers? I think it would be very helpful if that group arranged to get more samples sent to the millars. CIGI or CGC has probably done small test batches. If the AWWG don't send samples, then individual producers might want to send some early "Christmas presents" to the mills.

[ianben]

Thanks Tom
I was wondering the other day when I was reading the Manitoba crop report if you had harvested your winter wheat yet.
Seem to be having early harvest with reasonable yeilds and quality there.

Yeild sounds good. Straw should keep your mushroom guy happy!!!

Will you grow winter wheat again as part of your rotation or just when the opertunity arises?

Still unusually dry here. We have sown our winter canola but it will need rain to germinate. Forecast for tomorrow but now will go over France. C'est la vie.

[TOM4CWB]

Ianben;

We are seed growers, and hope to continue growing winter wheat for spreading work load out at harvest.

Lee;

I was at the CWB/AWWC July 03 Winter Wheat day in Lethbridge... but if the CWB will not pay a fair price for our wheat, and will not allow some harvest movement of market development select Winter Wheat, they will not get far with marketing or developing winter wheat markets. $10/t premium to CWB awful pool prices does not attract many progressive farmers.

I see the spread in CWB domestic NA prices between a #1CWRS 13.5 ($217.05/t) and #3CWRS ($216.05/t)...a wopping $1.00/t for a number of days... and 1CWRW was $211.85.

The PPO basis frankly stinks on Winter Wheat, and the CWB appears to think we should give our wheat to them... at a cheaper price than what is fair.

We are shipping #1CWRW 14px as feed, because the CWB refuses to pay fair market cash prices. Lee, this is a marketing disaster, and if the CWB is indicating it's market savy in winter wheat, it is simply an indication the CWB is in place to take our wheat and sell it at below fair market value.

Enough... I know I know, but no one seems to care... that we are being taken to the cleaners ... and loving it...

[ianben]

Tom Thought you might be interested in this.
THE harvest throughput record has been broken for the second time in just over a week.

Nottinghamshire contractor Farmeco set the new unofficial record on Friday (22 August) by clearing over 1000 tonnes in under 16 hours.

The company's Claas Lexion 580, fitted with a 7.5m (25ft) cutterbar, cleared 104.7ha of Claire with a combine throughput of up to 94 t/hour and a forward speed of up to 11km/h.

"The weather conditions were perfect and the crop thrashed particularly well," said Keith Challon of Bingham-based Farmeco.

The marathon harvesting session started at 7:00 am and beats the previous 1000t record, set by Wiltshire grower David White on Thursday (14 August), by over five hours.

But Mr Challon said he was held back by a relatively low-yielding crop and the combine was chopping the straw.

"I know we can improve on this and hopefully break the 100t/hr barrier," he said.

"We will definitely be back next year with a wider 9m header in hopefully a higher-yielding cro

Think Claas is sold as Cat in Canada but not sure as Challenger crawlers are no longer Claas here now.
Out of my league though 200tonnes a day and I am pleased from our axial-flow

[melvill]

Iaben, so this is the newest competition in "Farmerville" in Britain - combine competitions. I'd like to know how they hauled over 36,000 bushels from the field that fast and how far did they have to haul it.

[melvill]

iaben, France has the Tour de France. Now it looks like Britain has the Tour de Combine or maybe Tour de Claas. Grin.

[TOM4CWB]

Ianben;

Is there going to be a long green trail behind this Class?

What kind of loss levels are allowed in this type of contest...?

[TOM4CWB]

Ianben;

I was crawling with my 9750JD last night in the mist...(got rained out...you could tell I was grumpy couldn't you) 4km/hr (8t/ha Superb HRS) on my heavy spots... 325hp doesn't cut it on 36 feet of good feeding d****r header in green straw! I see JD has 440hp on the STS in England...

How many HP did the Claas have, and how much did they open the injection pump to do the contest?

[rodbradshaw]

Tom4CWB

Sounds like you have some good crops this year. It is amazing what a little rain will do.

The Lexion is a good combine for saving grain. As some one who has run both green and yellow combines, there is no comparison. The JD is underpowered especially if you are chopping straw and will not put the grain in the tank like the lexion will.

Hope harvest goes well.

Rod

[ianben]

Here are some facts from the guys who did this unofficial record posted on Farmers weekly forum.

On friday the 22nd of august at 7am FARMECO,S pre-series lexion 580 TT set out on what was going to be an epic day, the task in hand was to beat the record set of 1002 tons in 19 threshing hours on the 13th of august. The team were confident and the machine was ready, by 10am the average output was 67.80 tons/hr. The conditions were perfect, a cloudy night with a wind ment there was no dew, new chopper blades and knife ment little power would be wasted. With no breakdowns and one refueling akin to fomula 1 the whole opperation was slick to say the least, and did it do it ? Well read on :-
AVERAGE:
68.30 tons/hr
7.O2 ha/hr
9.72 tons/ha
10.338 lt/ha fuel
1.063 lt/ton fuel
working hrs 15.88
threshing hrs 14.92.
crop yield 1018 tons
area 104.760 ha

So to those of you who ask how much better is a 580 than a 480 the answer is about 4 hours.