Sad pic

[helmsdale]

Devils advocate and might get flamed not my intention and sorry if I offend anyone in advance.

I know you have harvest issues every year and frost from time to time.

But have you guys ever had total crop loss through dry in say since 1990?

'02 was awful close... single digit wheat yields are damned close to failure territory.

I was mowing kochia today... 7hrs with a 10ft schulte. When you're going 3mph in one place for long enough you start to notice things you've never noticed before...

So I was gazing at the regrassed pasture beside me and seen little pieces of wood sticking out of a pronounced mound of dirt running the entire 1/2 mile of a quarter section. It was a fenceline, and the ridge was blow dirt either from the 30s or the 80s. 4' high posts have only about 6" of wood still exposed. No wonder it was seeded back to grass.

[helmsdale]

There is a world of hurt lining up in this neighborhood...

Guys took 1/4s and 1/2s that were split into at least 4 strip fields, to minimize erosion, and turned them into huge wide open fields when they started chemfallowing. Now that kochia has become groups 2, 4, and 9 resistant, steel is starting to become popular again.

Harrows, deadrods, even high speed tillage are all the rage again... If we end up with a dry windy spring it's going to make the soil erosion of the 80s look minor by comparison!

[furrowtickler]

Devils advocate and might get flamed not my intention and sorry if I offend anyone in advance.

I know you have harvest issues every year and frost from time to time.

But have you guys ever had total crop loss through dry in say since 1990?

2000-2004 over much of western Canada

[furrowtickler]

I feel qualified to reply to you mallee. This year the worst part of the farm received 1.75 inches or about 40mm. Up to 75 mm. After two successive dry years.

We will harvest about 14 or 15 bu ave on lentils. Hearing 20 bu on durum and 15 to 20 on canola.

In my memory we have had 3 real bad ones 1988, 2002 and 2009. 2009 was very localized but I didn't harvest a bushel because I took it out of production and collected crop insurance. So in that way we are lucky.

Tweety says quit complaining, you absolutely can’t lose farming here in western Canada. He has stated numerous times as others we are so subsidized and protected and entitled that there is now way we should ever whine and complain............... just saying , that’s the attitude in the Ag Industry........

I want to see even one of them , ever , in the Ag Industry live off 80% less wage ... ever. We did , and many others , for 4 years and still managed ....... they would be F-U-K-E-D in 3 months...... absolutely true .
We did as Sheepwheat did , made changes , worked extra jobs , cut everything to the bone to survive .... yes sheepwheat , we’ve been there too ......

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Hey resident strawman, you're just trying to set up yet another strawman argument. Pity your husband.

You presented regenerative farming as the solution to this problem. Can you elaborate on how that would be done? Do you know any producers in the affected area using your methods who have managed to avoid the same fate?

Seeing pictures such as that really concerns me. While nothing we do is truly sustainable, losing topsoil is just devastating when you consider the implications, especially if it is preventable.

[malleefarmer]

Thanks for replies. You do indeed know what crap shoots are apologies.

In 17 when I was there lethbridge looked ordinary but harvestable.

Our latest GM project in South Australia taking a gene from middle eastern wild barley Iran I think another gene from a German barley and presuming it’s going into a south Australian barley, they replicate drought conditions and low humidity and wind in a glass house it’s produing 20 to 25% more biomass. See what happpens with yield.

So good to catch up in gm stakes.

[Guest]

Seeing pictures such as that really concerns me.

Really concerns you! Gee that's nice

[grassfarmer]

There is a world of hurt lining up in this neighborhood...

Guys took 1/4s and 1/2s that were split into at least 4 strip fields, to minimize erosion, and turned them into huge wide open fields when they started chemfallowing. Now that kochia has become groups 2, 4, and 9 resistant, steel is starting to become popular again.

Harrows, deadrods, even high speed tillage are all the rage again... If we end up with a dry windy spring it's going to make the soil erosion of the 80s look minor by comparison!

Sorry to change topics but is there a lot of glyphosate resistant wild oats around on the prairies? I see an awful lot of fields of canola around here with a healthy wild oat population.

[furrowtickler]

Sorry to change topics but is there a lot of glyphosate resistant wild oats around on the prairies? I see an awful lot of fields of canola around here with a healthy wild oat population.

When one is growing crops , round up ready canola or any crop , in dry conditions at herbicide time , second and third flushing does happen .
That is by far the most likely reason grass. Most were done the weed control before any significant rains started . And glyphosate, being a non residual herbicide like many other herbicides used in all crops , has no control of flushing weeds after they have been applied. Thus any weeds that came up when finally receiving moisture would not be controlled. It’s just that the wild oats are the easiest to spot because of their plant height.
Also dry conditions in many areas , lead to poor uneven canola establishments. That leads to poor weed competition as well . Most weed control products are used at rates the require good crop competition . That was not the case this year in many of those canola crops in many areas . Thus you get much higher than normal “escapes” with certain weeds.
I hope that gives you a better understanding of how weed control actually works , or not work so well , depending on crop conditions and weather.

[saskshafe]

Late rains. Spray once or twice with any of the systems it didn’ Matter. May look like shit but probably not going to affect yield, just looks like what a good organic field should look like.
There is always next year to get ‘em!!