Driving today Palliser/Goyder

[malleefarmer]

Had to take my son to a 5 day welding course today 145 kms away.

Had a pee stop in a roadside turn out at about 105km mark and was a monument.

It was saying this is goyders line.

Goyder was a sureveyor in 1800s and worked out what was good farming land and lesser farming land by viewing vegetation. Turn out historically he wasnt far off the mark until say last 15 years with advent of better farming practices and lower rainfall cereal pulse and canola breeding so maybe farming can be pushed into these drier areas.

Anyone who follows bullaburra on face book they are well the wrong side of goyders line.

But drought frequency is still high.

Has palliser and his triangle proved to be roughly correct or similiar to the above better farming drier areas can be farmed?

ps im about 100km the good side of goyders line.

Hopefully i will not offend anyone and god knows were foragefarmer farmers but my almost 6000 km tour of western canada last year i thought lethbridge was very dry as was rolling hills were i stayed for a few days.

To farmers in those areas i humbly apologize if i got it wrong just what i saw.

Is medicine hat bit light on for rainfall as well? Again apologies to medicine hat farmers.

Hope the slum of the ghetto farmer aint pissed at me im sure hes not bit like me were low rainfall famers but we make do.

Please note no reference to politics...........or political leaders........

[burnt]

Okay now, that was just outright funny as it got further on...but the beginning was very interesting.

All those apologies - sorry, but you'd make a great Canadian!

[ajl]

Farming in the Palliser triangle has been quite successful as of late so for the most part he was wrong as new technology, methods and different crop choices has made it quite viable. Paying $500K per quarter for land in these areas is likely unsustainable though. The old timers always blamed drought for crop failure historically when there were other factors at play, the major one being poor fertility so that is why there is an obsession with rainfall. Still need timely rainfall, just not as much volume as presumed.

[farmaholic]

Mallee....no offense taken. I joke about where I farm about being the Slum of the Ghetto....it's just an average area. I've definitely seen better and also worse. Its all I know.

On a more defined soil classification map we are in the "moist dark brown" zone...a zone that is probably the transition between the dark brown and black zones.

As for rainfall...it always has been an obsession, even with the soil classification. The family has always been sky watchers. They taught the next generation there is always a drought lurking around the corner, as they only seem to recall and talk about only the dry years...lol!

High input and continuous cropping has narrowed the productivity gap between the "good" land and "other" land. It may never be equal but the difference sure isn't as stark anymore either.

As for being pissed off and leaving this site. Nah, Dylan and Stonepicker haven't driven me away yet so I think my skin is thick enough for this internet playground...I don't bully easy!

[AlbertaFarmer5]

If you look far enough back through the proxy records, it would seem that Palliser was right, at least more often than not. We have been in a wet and moderate cycle for so long that we all think this is normal, and maybe it is. All I know is I look brilliant when mother nature cooperates on any time scale.

[Sheepwheat]

If you look far enough back through the proxy records, it would seem that Palliser was right, at least more often than not. We have been in a wet and moderate cycle for so long that we all think this is normal, and maybe it is. All I know is I look brilliant when mother nature cooperates on any time scale.

Like.

[farmaholic]

Does that mean the too wet areas shouldn't be "farmed" either because of the challenges they face?

[Klause]

Does that mean the too wet areas shouldn't be "farmed" either because of the challenges they face?

Tile Drainage "fixes" too wet areas and the surrounding issues (alkalinity/salinity, poor soil structure).

Irrigation "fixes" too dry areas.


Pipelines and aqueducts move water from the "too wet" to the "too dry" areas and their issues (low OM, low productivity, poor soil structure).

Oh wait a second. I forgot. We're in western Canada.

Nobody move! Nobody dream! Nobody do anything!

[sumdumguy]

Me thinks rain on the way this weekend. It’s Farm Progress Show.

[malleefarmer]

seems we agree goyder was basically correct but modern farming methods have changed things.

but weather still rules

just did some reading about pallisers triangle seems its more soil type than rainfall am i near the mark?

wonder if other such areas lines occur in other countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goyder%27s_Line

[Sheepwheat]

seems we agree goyder was basically correct but modern farming methods have changed things.

but weather still rules

just did some reading about pallisers triangle seems its more soil type than rainfall am i near the mark?

wonder if other such areas lines occur in other countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goyder%27s_Line

It is IMO, heat, wind and lower humidity, more than rainfall amounts that limits crop growth. Rainfall between say Regina, dark brown soil zone, and canora, deep black soil zone, is less than what potential productivity would indicate. Much higher humidity and much less wind comparatively.

I know whenever I go down to Regina, my intake apparatus dries out, and I marvel at the low humidity in the air, vs at home here, 250 km away. And Regina is not by a long shot a dry region, compared to say kindersley, eston, or shaunavon.

The last dozen years are most probably an anomaly overall. But it remains to see for the rain will keep watering a usually dry land as it has been.

Yes farming practices have helped too, no tillage and far higher fertility rates than used to be typical.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Does that mean the too wet areas shouldn't be "farmed" either because of the challenges they face?

Quite possibly, depends on the weather cycles going forward. For the posters here who constantly complain about it being too wet, I think if I were them, I would reconsider if field crops are the best fit for that land, like sheepwheat has already done. It may turn out that waiting for what we think is normal to return, may not actually be normal, and may not return.

I think we all need to be prepared to adapt to whatever the new reality may be going forward, warmer, colder, wetter or drier, and not assume that what we have experienced in our lifetimes is what we deserve going forward. I think there is a sense of entitlement about what we think the weather owes us. I have pretty low expectations, living on the fringe of the fringe. There is another poster here who has a precise recipe of what the weather owes him, and seems to get upset if it doesn't.

Or maybe the alarmists are right, and what we are enjoying is the results of climate change, which will only get better, so we have nothing to worry about.

[Guest]

Tile Drainage "fixes" too wet areas and the surrounding issues (alkalinity/salinity, poor soil structure).

Irrigation "fixes" too dry areas.


Pipelines and aqueducts move water from the "too wet" to the "too dry" areas and their issues (low OM, low productivity, poor soil structure).

Oh wait a second. I forgot. We're in western Canada.

Nobody move! Nobody dream! Nobody do anything!

what we gotta do is get rid of that ball and chain we've had since confederation

[WiltonRanch]

what we gotta do is get rid of that ball and chain we've had since confederation

Agreed. It will eventually happen but things will have to get really bad before it will take hold.

[GDR]

Does that mean the too wet areas shouldn't be "farmed" either because of the challenges they face?

Precisely, both extremes likely suited best to grass production but hunger for cropland is never ending. Lots of acres plowed up here the last 10 yrs that likely should not have been.