Drought or just a normal Canadian Spring?

[SASKFARMER3]

It's dry that is for sure.

But back when I was just out of High school we had a dry run it started in the early 80s and went till 1989 then the 90s were so-so and finally in 2000 the wet years began. Take a tree cut it across and look at the rings and count backwards to see what happened in the past. Guess what there were dry and wet years and some that lasted a while for both dry and wet.

This is Western Canada it's not every year is perfect farming.

It is one of the toughest places in the world to grow a crop.

But today just now Environment Canada is calling for spit and spat from Tuesday till Friday. So maybe it will give some a dust settling spit or a good drench.

Last years crops were thanks to the extreme wet years and a good growing season of cooler nights for plants to recover and roots to go deeper.

The well is dry in most areas so that is what makes 2018 more interesting.

Check the prices so far no one gives a rats ass if were bone dry because the Market knows jack shit from Chicago or where ever the Winnipeg traders moved to.

Its mother nature and she is a real C#$T.

[SASKFARMER3]

I don't remember 1961 wasn't born but it was so dry we only had crops in the low areas.

I do remember the 80s. They sucked.

What years do others remember that the rain never came or you looked at the sky to see wind and clouds that looked like rain and nothing hits the ground?

[farming101]

1988
There was subsoil moisture but the heat and wind dried out the seedbed and it wouldn't rain in time. Got an inch the first week in July but by then it was all over.

One neighbour seeded a field to canola late into ashes caught a half inch rain that everyone else missed and pulled off 40 bpa. In 1988.

[farmaholic]

SF3, wtf are grain prices going to matter to those who grow next to nothing or have no carry over?

edit, 'or' instead of 'of'

[farmaholic]

Do you think Bayer's advertising will be able to convince farmers that spraying fungicides shows a benefit even under drought-like conditions? Lol....what kind of a fool do they think I am? I wonder if we will see the ads we saw last year...the only thing that practice will benefit is them.

Still hoping for average.....

[farmaholic]

Well look at that...

"So regardless of disease pressure or environmental conditions give your wheat and barley yields a big-time boost come harvest time."

See hobby, there's even a spray for drought!

[Partners]

This is the kind of spring we had many yrs when we were young..then the mud yrs hit for us.
Remember incorporating treflan and avadex .then the drill behind in a major cloud of dust and dried out dirt.
This spring us the most fun in many..many yrs for us.

[MBgrower]

Over in this area droughts are rare. We have had some dry years and below ave yields because of dryness, but the sub soil moisture would carry the crops. Not this year though, there is no subsoil moisture so if we don't get timely rain, our crops will just turn yellow and die.

1988 was our worst year that I can remember. there were sporadic thundershowers from time to time, most of them wouldn't even get the sidewalk wet.

[farmaholic]

80, 81, 84, 87, 88, 97, 01, 02, 09, 15, 17 !

Looks like 18 but she ain't over !

Been praying for rain my whole life !

You know my response to that wiseguy, wouldn't it be nice if it didn't matter!?!?!?

And yup, 15 and 17 weren't good here either, talk of 88 being bad but I had little skin in the game then....the rest escapes me, but couldn't have been horrible cause I would likely recall it. 80/81 I was still in highschool. It probably isn't the potential lack of production that bothers me as much as the cost of production!

[fjlip]

Was no better down south in most of early 1900's, many of our neighbors moved up here then.
Congregation prayed for rain once, then wet years and we all agree NEVER ask for rain. Such extremes, all need to walk a mile in other's shoes. Good luck, because that is all this chaos means.

[helmsdale]

Was a young pup in 89/90, but I remember shoveling blow dirt out of the one ways because we were afraid we'd bust the hitch if we tried pulling them out. Or pushing blow dirt back into deep blow outs with blades. Crop sandblasted and forever crippled. Min till has pretty much solved that problem thank christ... chemical resistance has flourished though, and $10/ac chemfallow passes have pushed a lot of guys into continuous. '02 I remember slamming 44' swaths up the front of a 750 Massey in road gear and not getting a tandem load of grain off a 40ac field.

'15 was the first drought I had actual skin in the game. Belt was pretty tight, and I'm still slowly clawing back.

[helmsdale]

2 10 day forecasts, only six hours apart... 00z had us plugged for nearly 3", 06z has us getting 0". Been like that since March. High tech super computer generated global weather models are just as disillusioned as some of us are.

00z


06z

[Sheepwheat]

Have Never been short of rain enough to affect crops in this place. Yield loss from too much moisture? Many, many times.

This year conditions are the best they have been since 2003.

[furrowtickler]

Very close to normal here , it is extremely rare for us to get much rain this time of year.

[Casered]

[ATTACH]2915[/ATTACH]

Well look at that...

"So regardless of disease pressure or environmental conditions give your wheat and barley yields a big-time boost come harvest time."

See hobby, there's even a spray for drought!

Haha. If we don't get any rain here in the next month I think the crop will die. We are in great soil it's heavy clay. This is a first for me. Most of my years farming have been on the wet side but we grew some great crops in the wetter years. Bayer is in for a rude awakening if the forcast holds true. If it stays dry till next spring they won't sell any canola in this area. I'm hoping they drop seed prices they will have too if they want to sell any seed across the South if a serious drought continues.