The "D" word...

[farmaholic]

Hopper bins. My back reminds me how stupid I was when I was young. Worked hard emptying old wooden bins. Digging grain out of corners. Lots of shovelling in large diameter flat bottoms too. Bin sweeps should be sold with respirators. Grain Vac hoses are heavy too but at least your not stooped and twisting like shovelling.....and no dust.

.....hopper bottoms. Or grain bags?

[tweety]

Isn't harvest the best time to have a drought?

[Partners]

Hopper bins. My back reminds me how stupid I was when I was young. Worked hard emptying old wooden bins. Digging grain out of corners. Lots of shovelling in large diameter flat bottoms too. Bin sweeps should be sold with respirators. Grain Vac hoses are heavy too but at least your not stooped and twisting like shovelling.....and no dust.

.....hopper bottoms. Or grain bags?

Correct the good old days of shoveling.
Many new giant flat bottoms going up.
Must be young fellows or employees ..
As we are older hopper bins..
Rather move the swing auger than own a shovel.

[bucket]

Correct the good old days of shoveling.
Many new giant flat bottoms going up.
Must be young fellows or employees ..
As we are older hopper bins..
Rather move the swing auger than own a shovel.

I will shovel flax because I just shovel saying " another 100 dollar bill" Flax reminds me of a 100 dollar bill...same color....hahaha

[Guest]

Isn't harvest the best time to have a drought?

except it started in june here, march in southern areas

[AlbertaFarmer5]

except it started in june here, march in southern areas

Our harvest started in April, continued into June, does that count?

[Blaithin]

Hopper bins. My back reminds me how stupid I was when I was young. Worked hard emptying old wooden bins. Digging grain out of corners. Lots of shovelling in large diameter flat bottoms too. Bin sweeps should be sold with respirators. Grain Vac hoses are heavy too but at least your not stooped and twisting like shovelling.....and no dust.

.....hopper bottoms. Or grain bags?

You must be old if you had to shovel out corners!

[Partners]

You must be old if you had to shovel out corners!

Yup.
Corners..no bin sweep..wires in old Square bins that held 1000 bushels.
And steel shovels not aluminum.
We missed the round plywood bin craze..

[Blaithin]

Oh I forgot about the wires! Always hit my head on them 🤕

[Guest]

Luckily these new $16/lb canola varieties dont need rain*

[malleefarmer]

Hopefully not deemed a smart arse question nasty or condescending.

Have any of you guys had total crop failures over the years .

Myself in 82 memory 2700 acres of crop harvested the best maybe 1200 acres 12 to 15 bushels wheat barley grazed the rest.

2002 similar but grain worth $300 per tonne every acre combined.

Since then we seem to be growing better crops on less rain had below average way below but no train wrecks.

No till farming better methods etc etc better fert better chems

[Sheepwheat]

Hopefully not deemed a smart arse question nasty or condescending.

Have any of you guys had total crop failures over the years .

Myself in 82 memory 2700 acres of crop harvested the best maybe 1200 acres 12 to 15 bushels wheat barley grazed the rest.

2002 similar but grain worth $300 per tonne every acre combined.

Since then we seem to be growing better crops on less rain had below average way below but no train wrecks.

No till farming better methods etc etc better fert better chems

Several. Related to too much rain, frost, hail. Worst was caused by too much rain. Worst was 2010, we couldn’t get on the land to seed a thing, zero yield. On the road to our town, a distance of 18 miles, there were I think a total of four fields that got seeded. Two other years seeded less than half due to too wet. Two years with low single digit canola, canary seed, yields due to too much rain. Two or three times got nailed by early frost with next to zero yield. Hail that was 100% wipe out twice. This spring I combined 2 bushel per acre flax that wouldn’t mature last fall, due to too wet, too cool, and poor emergence.

So yeah, I’ve had more than my share of bad crops. Honestly, the harder I look, my farming career has been really quite poor. Just enough good to great crops to stay in the game. Historically this is a very productive area, but since 2004, it’s been pretty sketchy. This year, a dry year relatively, yields are awesome. This area does best, unfortunately, when other areas are too dry. Name a drought year, chances are it was stellar in our little area. Name a year where bumpers happened in dryer areas of the open prairies, chances re we had poor yields due to too much rain.

Went to look at a tractor. Guy selling said they had had 9 good production years in a row. It just hasn’t happened for me. Longest string I put together of good crops in consecutive years was from 1994 to 1998, then 2000 to 2003. Then things went to pot.

Sadly, yeah I’ve had failures. Sorry for rambling.

[fjlip]

Apparently 1961 was horrible DRY,
1988 16 bu. wheat and canola.
2002 18-20 bu. wheat and canola, 24 barley. A blast furnace 2 weeks in August.
2010 17 wheat and 14 canola, but due to 20" of RAIN May June.
Polar opposites same yields, hmmm?

[malleefarmer]

Again not wanting to sound like a turd or a troll ShitZe disturbing.

But those wet year well if you didnt plant you didnt lose or were on different wavelengths with that th8nking

[farmaholic]

Again not wanting to sound like a turd or a troll ShitZe disturbing.

But those wet year well if you didnt plant you didnt lose or were on different wavelengths with that th8nking

Alot of farms need to generate revenue for basic living expenses and pay mortgages, equipment payments, etc.
So it's not only not having to spend the money not being able to seed a crop because it's too wet, it's not being able to generate the money you need otherwise.