First of all, I do appreciate your weekly crop reports and political observations, even if the drama is a little over the top sometimes. From a marketing point of view, it would be great if we all had time to travel the width and breadth of the prairies once a week during our busiest seasons to draw our own conclusions, which obviously doesn't happen.
But I do take issue with two comments you often make. Only needing 4 of 1" rains to make a crop. According to google, 1" of rain will grow 3.5 to 4 bushels of canola per acre. So 4 one inch rain events will grow at most 16 bushels per acre. Not sure how much snow melt soaks in in your area, here it typically runs off of frozen ground, not leaving much moisture anywhere except the low ground. Then perform some tillage, some evaporation, lose some while seeding, and I'm not sure that you can grow a 60 bushel canola crop on 4" of in season rain, at least not year after year. That said, we have grown some amazing crops on almost no in season rain in recent years thanks to excess subsoil moisture( all gone now).
The other issue is western Canada being the hardest place in the world to farm. I can't speak for your neighborhood, but here, I've never had my farm forcibly nationalized, or been forced into a collective, armed rebels haven't murdered any of my neighbors, no one has armed guards at the gates of the razor wire fence around the compound called the farm yard. I've never had to pay a bribe to any corrupt official or mob to remain in business or deliver my produce. I'm not afraid to enlist the help of the police. I am quite confident that this society won't let me starve to death if my crop fails completely for multiple years. There is very little hard manual labour required on my farm, I don't till any fields by hand. My profit or loss isn't directly tied to the success or failure of the monsoon season, or depth of the dry season. I have access to crop insurance, however flawed it may be, I have access to experts in every field for free. I have a publicly maintained road that can handle 44 Tonnes of freight year around right to my front gate. I can do business with a handshake with my suppliers and purchasers, and have access to a mostly uncorrupt legal system in the event that falls through. I can do it all on credit if I had the inclination, and I have access to cheap credit by world standards, including interest free cash advance. And if I don't pay that debt, there is a process for getting out of it that doesn't involve broken bones.
Most products, parts etc. are produced and warehoused somewhere on the continent I live, and with the incredible infrastructure, I can get them very fast if necessary. I can come on this public forum and post whatever I want with no fear or repurcussions( except maybe facing the ire of Chuck and Grass). And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I am still free to do almost anything on my own land, and drag nearly anything on the road, unlike many of our European neighbors. And yes, there are areas with a lot more sever weather than we get, there are farmers on Greenland, on high altitude mountains, floodplains, deserts, hurricane and tornado alleys etc.
But I do take issue with two comments you often make. Only needing 4 of 1" rains to make a crop. According to google, 1" of rain will grow 3.5 to 4 bushels of canola per acre. So 4 one inch rain events will grow at most 16 bushels per acre. Not sure how much snow melt soaks in in your area, here it typically runs off of frozen ground, not leaving much moisture anywhere except the low ground. Then perform some tillage, some evaporation, lose some while seeding, and I'm not sure that you can grow a 60 bushel canola crop on 4" of in season rain, at least not year after year. That said, we have grown some amazing crops on almost no in season rain in recent years thanks to excess subsoil moisture( all gone now).
The other issue is western Canada being the hardest place in the world to farm. I can't speak for your neighborhood, but here, I've never had my farm forcibly nationalized, or been forced into a collective, armed rebels haven't murdered any of my neighbors, no one has armed guards at the gates of the razor wire fence around the compound called the farm yard. I've never had to pay a bribe to any corrupt official or mob to remain in business or deliver my produce. I'm not afraid to enlist the help of the police. I am quite confident that this society won't let me starve to death if my crop fails completely for multiple years. There is very little hard manual labour required on my farm, I don't till any fields by hand. My profit or loss isn't directly tied to the success or failure of the monsoon season, or depth of the dry season. I have access to crop insurance, however flawed it may be, I have access to experts in every field for free. I have a publicly maintained road that can handle 44 Tonnes of freight year around right to my front gate. I can do business with a handshake with my suppliers and purchasers, and have access to a mostly uncorrupt legal system in the event that falls through. I can do it all on credit if I had the inclination, and I have access to cheap credit by world standards, including interest free cash advance. And if I don't pay that debt, there is a process for getting out of it that doesn't involve broken bones.
Most products, parts etc. are produced and warehoused somewhere on the continent I live, and with the incredible infrastructure, I can get them very fast if necessary. I can come on this public forum and post whatever I want with no fear or repurcussions( except maybe facing the ire of Chuck and Grass). And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I am still free to do almost anything on my own land, and drag nearly anything on the road, unlike many of our European neighbors. And yes, there are areas with a lot more sever weather than we get, there are farmers on Greenland, on high altitude mountains, floodplains, deserts, hurricane and tornado alleys etc.
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