2020 mine what’s yours

[malleefarmer]

Started year with fires rampaging across Australia then floods or many areas.

Bit of calm covid hit.

Season opened up in late April.

Continuing to ok year for me bumper best ever for many.

Grain prices exploded in late April early May eased of all year bottomed early dec now rising again.

Sheep beef meat prices in stratosphere.

Wool lost 60% of value but improving.

prime minister went from zero handling of bushfires to hero handling of covid.

Crook mother around Easter very crook going ok.

Banged up wife in sept on the up and up.

News wires full of trump and covid.

Our conservative pm quite well liked by both sides of voting sphere. Has sort of walked away from Paris climate accord to dismay o some praise of others.

Never ending blue with China they hit lumber this week in a big way, again opens door for Canada same as barley for you guys.

Grand daughter growing up.

Sons trip to Canada cancelled.

Shall be interesting what 21 brings.

Doubt any left field events can top 2020

All the best my early New Years ramble.

[makar]

Relatively uneventful year here, covid lockdown means little when you don't go out much, don't watch grain markets because mother nature wont let me have any. Family blessed with good health. Number 2 son working overtime in this economy, was asked a while ago why he works so hard, his answer was on the farm if you are not moving you are getting yelled at.

[SASKFARMER]

Ok started the year strong. But had 1/3 of the 2019 crop still in the field under snow.

Big crop on what we harvested so moved grain and prices sucked but had lots.

Went south and enjoyed my time in Florida. Actually relaxed.

Went to the Bahamas etc.

COVID HIT>

Flights cancelled. Then dog flys to Vancouver we go to Montreal. Tell WestJet to skip it we drive home 3650KM with the dog.

Social distanced on the trip home with wife and dog. Wore gloves and mask filling and wiped card and sanitized hands. Zero traffic as shut down was happening in North America.

Got groceries in Minot and hit the boarder.

Went to farm social distanced and wife was in Regina.

The two-week lockdown was fun.

Started harvesting as the snow melted but ground frozen. Grain dry but a two and three.

Canola harvest had to wait till snow under swath melted but then it was go and go we did.

Then we had to seed day after Canola finished. Full crew, it went smooth.

Big rain to start crop north of town.

Funny summer 4 showers of rain north of town. Two south.

Relaxed more at the lake and golfed and toured Saskatchewan.

Harvest arrived and full crew again was fun and the yields got bigger the further north of town you went.

Did our usual custom combine but this year 2000 acres.

Nice fall for cat and clean up work.

All hell breaks out for me with the full-blown infection.

Rushed to General hospital on Oxegen, tubes morphine drip, antibiotics and saline. Two weeks they say I was so close to sepsis.

Sepsis is the body's extreme response to an infection. It is a life-threatening medical emergency. Sepsis happens when an infection you already have triggered a chain reaction throughout your body. Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.

Lost 40 plus LBS and it changed my outlook on pushing myself. Smell the roses a little more and enjoy family and friends way more. Still hate ****ing Liberals but that will never change and morons like Chuck.

Then we lost the family dog which made recovery a lot tougher especially when everyone went to work and now the house was quiet and lonely.

Finally Covid Christmas with family and shouting merry Christmas to my folks in their condo retirement facility. phoned and zoomed family and friends.

Overall I am looking forward to 2021. It will be one interesting year for sure, I think 2020 was just the beginning of a new Reset for more than Trudeau but me also.

Oh got a new minature Schnauzer coming end of January.

[burnt]

T'was a very mixed bag - some great blessings and some immeasurable losses.

Most of the losses were felt by all those imbued with any perception - an accustomed carefree-ness lost, uncertainty for the future, to name a couple.

Foremost, a further erosion of confidence in government - it is devastating to contemplate what dynamics are in play when incompetence and malevolence rises to the top.

Some close relationship desperately tested by unforeseen developments - but the underlying bonds of love laid open and perhaps strengthened, giving hope for the future...And some relationships shattered by betrayal. Life is never boring...

But our household has much more for which to be thankful. Such as the best cropping season in many years and really big crops at a good price. And for perhaps the first time ever, more calves than cows!!

But most of all, for 2 new healthy grandsons giving us 5 now, complemented by our one golden-haired granddaughter who presents the epitome of beauty, agility and grace.

These little ones provide an extra measure of joy and effort in this later stage of life.

The Wuhan flu bug hit in the households of some of my siblings but we dodged it. So far...

It was an interesting year, to say the least. It is the tough times, not the good, that tries and exposes our puny humanity.

Whatever may come, the message in this song is what holds it all together for me, as poorly and inadequately as I live in it.

May the New Year bring good health, fulfillment and joy to each of you.

[woodland]

Family wise it’s been a decent year. Only sad part was our hired cousin losing his wife to cancer. Got a new pup in the spring and buried the older dog just recently. Everyone else is healthy, happy, and growing up fast. Managed to sneak in a short trip to Radium hot springs in October during a lull in the craziness. Otherwise there was next to no time off trying to deal with Ma Nature’s curveballs.

The breakdowns at seeding came fast and furious. Spindles breaking, hyd motors blowing up, bearings failing, tires losing round, and getting stuck seemed to suck time and drug seeding into June. Calving the most cows ever and during seeding is another complication. It was helped immensely once we got our calf catcher built for the quad.

Best idea of the year.

The rain wouldn’t let up for haying either. Bought and put floater tires on the silage truck and rebuilt the silage chopper we had no intention of using since it was too wet to even make silage bales. Tried making dry hay later on and every bale got rained on multiple times except 80 pretty ones. Very disheartening since we didn’t need any feed and wanted to sell it all.

Grain harvest went quite smoothly thanks to nice weather and the much better dryer that we installed in the summer. Did everything in house (concrete, crane, gas, genset rigging) except had a buddy come over to give us a crash course in three phase wiring and vfd’s. Almost all the crop went through it and it was nice to keep up to the combine instead of drying till Christmas like most years.


Second best idea of the year.

The cattle did great on summer grazing and the corn turned out very nice after the late summer heat wave which was very welcome here. Never would have gotten the crops off otherwise.



There’s all the pairs hiding somewhere in there. They’ll reappear in a week or so. Truly a game changer for us in the winter feeding department. Not any cheaper than hay but so much time savings. A couple hours most days is what it takes me and the one bunch is 12 miles away.

Booked for preg testing the heifers next week so we can sell the opens and steers the first week of January. The prices have slid down over the last year and my expectations are quite low. There’s more yearlings than a year ago but the cheque will likely be smaller. At least the nice unexpected rise in grain prices are helping to partially offset the loss.

Looking forward to next year here. This fall we got most of the fieldwork done, the manure spread, water systems fixed up, and 4.5 miles of tree filled fence lines cleared and rebuilt. Aiming to keep the cat piling bush all winter and the hoe or loader burning brush piles or digging dugouts. There’s always the plethora of repairs that we’ll be starting on soon that comes with running older shrapnel. There’s a mile of fence still on the wish list and a new calving shed.

Here’s to hoping the world can return to some sense on normalcy next year. Bring on ‘21................ the family came out here in 1921 and made it through worse struggles than this. Maybe the next century will be easier (or not) but we’ll enjoy the ride nonetheless.

Cheers🍻

[Guest]

Started 2020 with daughters , husbands and all 5 grandkids in Mexico
Had a real nice trip with good weather , managed to dive with 2 grandkids and daughter!
Then two weeks in Honduras early March with wife’s family to celebrate her 60th birthday
For one couple , this was their first hot trip , they were amazed at the beautiful beach and the water and the reef . Took an advanced diving course , got 63 yr old brother in law diving, (never to late !) Roatan is a beautiful place , but this covid is wrecking everything they have built up over the years
Just made it out of Honduras 5 hours before airport closed , was a little tense
Sunwing was amazing , first time ever that I was happy to see snow
Walked through deserted airports in Toronto ,Calgary and saskatoon
Self isolated 2 weeks
Grandson came in april and helped put the crop in , he was amazing and an absolute godsend
Seeding went really good and by June crops were absolutely perfect
Then July 2nd 50% of crop got a severe hail and tornado
33% got worked up , two neighbours lost their houses
Thank god for hail and crop insurance
Summer was cool , except for the heat wave while canola was flowering , lost 25-30% of yield in that two weeks
Never really had a rain after the hailstorm
Harvest was easy and a pleasure with what was left
Found out how easy it could be when dry
Some hailed out cereals were decent yielders
Grew biggest crop of canary ever on the farm ,wheat really good as were oats
Christmas was cruel without family but at least all are healthy !!
damn like button to close to edit button , liked my own post , wtf

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Best way to describe 2020 here is lost every battle but won the war.
Covid has been a non issue. Don't go anywhere anyways, no one close has been affected.
Had most of crop out over the winter. Needed an early warm dry spring.
Instead very heavy snowpack lasted till late April, and from that point till late July it rained every day with very low heat units.
Combined in mud, seeded in mud or rain. Broke almost everything imaginable on the combines in terrible conditions.
One big hail storm in late June really set the canola back.
Calving didn't go much better with the miserable weather ( keeping calves healthy more specifically, calving went well).
Put up hay in July with rain every day, should have waited, since once it quit raining, it never started again.
No fall frost till very late, no snow till into October.
Harvest paused for a few weeks in Oct while it snowed, then resumed for a brief period, almost long enough to get everything picked up from flat on the ground, while it rained almost every day, just like spring.
Wheat was tremendous.
Barley and Canola ranged from 0 to record breaking. Average crops the hard way. Way too much rain and too continuous.
As of year end, bins are full, prices are good.
Lots of feed, hay prices are very low, cattle prices aren't great.
Great open fall for getting lots of landscaping type work done.

[blackpowder]

Covid didn't directly affect my life at all. One side benefit of being slightly autistic LoL. For my son however, it will be a lost year with a struggle to catch-up.
The only positive is that he has been allowed to grow for a year without demands above his level of coping.

Raising my machinery payments per acre resulted in the first cycle I've had that was relatively stress free in that regard. Everything worked as it should and am looking forward to a change free season ahead, I hope.
Crops were quite fair and no drying required. Price rally evened out overall margins. Hopefully price 3/4 of 21 production North of $7 wheat, $11.50 canola.

I did however experience a near burn out event from stress. Brought on by my mishandling of employee relationships.
Many contributing factors but have to work on letting some things go, setting boundaries a big one, and speaking my mind proactively and effectively.
I've learned stress is cumulative. Processing sour personal events while dealing with the dissonance of constant bullshit will knock you out eventually. Getting enough rest is big. Telling people my way of paying it forward.
Never quit quitting stupid shit like tobacco addiction or other poor coping strategies LoL.
I'm a work in progress. Looking at different horizons. Pondering life away from the farm. Investing outside the country.

Here's to rain in June, we're going to need it!!

[Guest]

Family wise it’s been a decent year. Only sad part was our hired cousin losing his wife to cancer. Got a new pup in the spring and buried the older dog just recently. Everyone else is healthy, happy, and growing up fast. Managed to sneak in a short trip to Radium hot springs in October during a lull in the craziness. Otherwise there was next to no time off trying to deal with Ma Nature’s curveballs.

The breakdowns at seeding came fast and furious. Spindles breaking, hyd motors blowing up, bearings failing, tires losing round, and getting stuck seemed to suck time and drug seeding into June. Calving the most cows ever and during seeding is another complication. It was helped immensely once we got our calf catcher built for the quad.

hey woodland , whats the deal with those bins in background of dryer pic ?

Best idea of the year.

The rain wouldn’t let up for haying either. Bought and put floater tires on the silage truck and rebuilt the silage chopper we had no intention of using since it was too wet to even make silage bales. Tried making dry hay later on and every bale got rained on multiple times except 80 pretty ones. Very disheartening since we didn’t need any feed and wanted to sell it all.

Grain harvest went quite smoothly thanks to nice weather and the much better dryer that we installed in the summer. Did everything in house (concrete, crane, gas, genset rigging) except had a buddy come over to give us a crash course in three phase wiring and vfd’s. Almost all the crop went through it and it was nice to keep up to the combine instead of drying till Christmas like most years.


Second best idea of the year.

The cattle did great on summer grazing and the corn turned out very nice after the late summer heat wave which was very welcome here. Never would have gotten the crops off otherwise.



There’s all the pairs hiding somewhere in there. They’ll reappear in a week or so. Truly a game changer for us in the winter feeding department. Not any cheaper than hay but so much time savings. A couple hours most days is what it takes me and the one bunch is 12 miles away.

Booked for preg testing the heifers next week so we can sell the opens and steers the first week of January. The prices have slid down over the last year and my expectations are quite low. There’s more yearlings than a year ago but the cheque will likely be smaller. At least the nice unexpected rise in grain prices are helping to partially offset the loss.

Looking forward to next year here. This fall we got most of the fieldwork done, the manure spread, water systems fixed up, and 4.5 miles of tree filled fence lines cleared and rebuilt. Aiming to keep the cat piling bush all winter and the hoe or loader burning brush piles or digging dugouts. There’s always the plethora of repairs that we’ll be starting on soon that comes with running older shrapnel. There’s a mile of fence still on the wish list and a new calving shed.

Here’s to hoping the world can return to some sense on normalcy next year. Bring on ‘21................ the family came out here in 1921 and made it through worse struggles than this. Maybe the next century will be easier (or not) but we’ll enjoy the ride nonetheless.

Cheers🍻

hey woodland , whats the deal with those bins in background of dryer pic ?
extended with steel ?

[woodland]

hey woodland , whats the deal with those bins in background of dryer pic ?
extended with steel ?

We bought them at neighbours sale and boosted them up 12 feet with 12 gauge steel and pipe as stiffeners. Poured a aeration floor and homemade unload in them built from a blown over swing auger. 45 minutes to clean them out with two people and a homemade sweep which isn’t bad in my eyes.

Bush engineering at work here........