A tale of two barleys.

[Sheepwheat]

So I have some barley at home that if it fills will make 90. Seven miles away I have barley and I haven’t grown such a deplorable crop. I’m thinking twenty to thirty. If it finishes heading and fills. The reasons?

1. More snow cover. The write off line nearby is directly relational to the snow cover last winter.

2. Better soil. Heavier subsoil especially, deeper topsoil. Deep black vs, black, clay loam vs. loam.

3. More trees. This is a guess, but the best fields I have, and have seen are the ones with wind protection and the extra snow capture. Trees slow down desiccating winds for longer distances than you may imagine.

4. Topography. It’s more gently sloping at home than the knob n kettle pothole country. More efficient water use where it falls.

In the end, it is dumb luck. The biggest irony is that the good barley has had less rain than the poor barley.

Finally, trying to put a yield on the area is impossible. There is knee high oats that may go 20, and chest high oats that if it fills will be normal. There is lodging barley, and barley you could hunt gophers in. Canola that is solid yellow, and holding on, blooming forever, and canola that is sparse, and frying up. The one crop that has taken a beating across the board here is peas. Every field looks plain terrible.

Soil quality and luck of the draw for showers and snowfall is showing up this year like I have never seen.

My guess for the general area is half a crop on average, with zero yields, mixed in with normal to bumper yields. So bizarre.

[jazz]

Sheep the conditions have been widely variable except for the heat. Localized frosts, spotty showers and general rains that give one guy 2 inches and another guy down the road half an inch.

That april snowstorm was a saviour for us but we had land just 10 miles away that didnt get much of it.

I guess the term is micro climates.

There has been something wrong in the weather patterns for 3 months and I dont mean climate change because the eastern US is getting tons of moisture.

More likely an oscillation combined with an el nino/nina cycle.

[Blaithin]

We’re stuck under the bubble and the dam thing won’t pop.

For #3, if snow blows something 200-300 m, it can sublimate and even though you have snow sitting there, it has little to no moisture value. Trees will help prevent sublimation giving your snowpack increased bang.

[Sheepwheat]

We’re stuck under the bubble and the dam thing won’t pop.

For #3, if snow blows something 200-300 m, it can sublimate and even though you have snow sitting there, it has little to no moisture value. Trees will help prevent sublimation giving your snowpack increased bang.

Yeah up here in skidoo season, you hit the bush and it’s powdery goodness. Out in the open plains it’s rough sledding and drifts mixed with an inch or two on the hilltops.

[GDR]

I was actually thinking this week about everyone on Agriville complaining about poplar trees. The best pasture we have is under the trees and even along the Bush the crops are better. I think shade for portions of the day is a big help in this weather pattern.

[Sheepwheat]

I was actually thinking this week about everyone on Agriville complaining about poplar trees. The best pasture we have is under the trees and even along the Bush the crops are better. I think shade for portions of the day is a big help in this weather pattern.

I think poplars act differently in different areas, probably depending on soil type? Here, we never see a shorter or worse crop right up to the trees. Only on hills on the south side does one see a problem at times. North side of the trees is the best crop year after year. I need to take pics more. Same here on the grass. Best grass is border areas and under the shade of the trees, so long as the tree density is low enough and the undergrowth is browsed out. No wind in the trees at all. Shade from beating down sun. Water table is stabilized in the bush.

Works for me here. I do understand how they can be detrimental under certain conditions.

Heck, even the frost of 04. ALL my fields have shelter from trees on multiple sides. The worst hit fields were open fields. I had canola go over 45 that year, and most guys wouldn’t believe me and so I stopped saying anything. Only my trucker believed me. It also would be like bragging this year if a guy got 45. Hard to believe and plain cruel.

[makar]

Here the poplar sucker so bad they suck the life out of anything, halfway up the lawn since spring.

[Livewire]

Here’s a possible outcome if sheepwheats barley fields are the same size and he has crop insurance. The 90 and 30 bushel crops averaged together would make 60 and possibly right at his guarantee so no payment. This is my biggest beef with crop insurance.
Does this happen with any other insurance? Say you are in the business of renting out equipment. You have ten- ——————(insert whatever you rent out). Do they tell you yes you can insure all ten- but only 80 percent of these are going to be covered????A fire comes along and two are burned and completely lost. Therefore too bad for you you still have 80 percent of what you have insured and will not be getting a payment.

Crop insurance has really helped out before but lately I consider it more along the lines of crap insurance.

Maybe the heat is getting to me

[GDR]

Here’s a possible outcome if sheepwheats barley fields are the same size and he has crop insurance. The 90 and 30 bushel crops averaged together would make 60 and possibly right at his guarantee so no payment. This is my biggest beef with crop insurance.
Does this happen with any other insurance? Say you are in the business of renting out equipment. You have ten- ——————(insert whatever you rent out). Do they tell you yes you can insure all ten- but only 80 percent of these are going to be covered????A fire comes along and two are burned and completely lost. Therefore too bad for you you still have 80 percent of what you have insured and will not be getting a payment.

Crop insurance has really helped out before but lately I consider it more along the lines of crap insurance.

Maybe the heat is getting to me

In some scenarios yes other insurance can work similar, same old story want more or better you can have it but you gotta pay more.

I wish crop insurance wasn't an average also, really sucks when you have a wreck in one field but no compensation. I am very spread out so used to try and spread crops around too but have given up on that also partly because of crop insurance, now I try to keep each type of crop in fields close together, helps in hail season too along with easier in spring and fall. I only have one contract for crop insurance but they have offered to make additional contracts for different townships to help that specific issue but then would have to start over with area avg yields again on new contracts so didnt want to do that.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

It amazes me when I travel to see crops growing right up to tree lines in the dry areas of the prairies. Yet here where it is as wet as it gets, nothing can grow anywhere near a row of poplar trees. On a dry year such as this, there is easily 50 feet of major damage, I don't even seed within 15 feet since it will be a complete waste regardless of year. Wet years are even worse than dry on the north sides of trees.

Not sure if the difference is in the tree species, or in the soil, or in the depth plants and roots have to go to find water, maybe here they both compete for water in the first few inches, elsewhere they go much deeper?

The only exception seems to be old mature trees which have been there so long that there is a century of cow manure under them, and they aren't sending out suckers every which way, grass or crops do well in all the manure.

Then try to dry hay or swaths on north, or even east or west side of trees in our climate.

[Sheepwheat]

It amazes me when I travel to see crops growing right up to tree lines in the dry areas of the prairies. Yet here where it is as wet as it gets, nothing can grow anywhere near a row of poplar trees. On a dry year such as this, there is easily 50 feet of major damage, I don't even seed within 15 feet since it will be a complete waste regardless of year. Wet years are even worse than dry on the north sides of trees.

Not sure if the difference is in the tree species, or in the soil, or in the depth plants and roots have to go to find water, maybe here they both compete for water in the first few inches, elsewhere they go much deeper?

The only exception seems to be old mature trees which have been there so long that there is a century of cow manure under them, and they aren't sending out suckers every which way, grass or crops do well in all the manure.

Then try to dry hay or swaths on north, or even east or west side of trees in our climate.

It’s as wet or wetter here than anywhere else on the prairies. So it’s gotta be something else? True trying to dry hay without wind. That’s when I see the hurt.

[Guest]

Allelopathy

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I've often suspected allelopathy is a factor. But in heavy wet ground with lots of manure and moisture, grass or crops will grow right up to a poplar tree, so the biggest factor seems to be the tree taking all the moisture and nutrients.

[Blaithin]

Seems odd that poplars in drier areas don’t cause that issue so much. Less water to go around than there. I wonder if it’s more that it’s too wet for them, more so on the north. They don’t get the sun to help balance out the moisture and just do poorly. Shaded, cool and wet all year.

Would young trees take more water as they’re growing or less because they’re not as big? Growing should be sucking more nutrients for those fast trees I’d imagine.

Either the mature trees use less water, which helps the crop grow, or take more and therefore help them not drown. Also heavy manured and deep soil will be able to hold more water without becoming saturated.

Could also just be your average rooting issue. Crops don’t root deep because there’s lots of water, then the trees start to draw in summer and the plants have hobbled themselves.

Might be a neat place to experiment when and if you get the time and inclination (haha). Even playing around with a buffer in that 15’ you don’t use. Put in a strip of wildflowers or something that’s more adept at a treed environment. Could tell you if it’s the trees being mean or the crop being wimpy.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Could also just be your average rooting issue. Crops don’t root deep because there’s lots of water, then the trees start to draw in summer and the plants have hobbled themselves.

Might be a neat place to experiment when and if you get the time and inclination (haha). Even playing around with a buffer in that 15’ you don’t use. Put in a strip of wildflowers or something that’s more adept at a treed environment. Could tell you if it’s the trees being mean or the crop being wimpy.

I think your exactly right about the average rooting depth. Here where both plants and trees are spoiled by adequate moisture they have very shallow roots, so both are competing for the same water and nutrients. And the trees here grow much much larger faster and sucker much more aggressively than drier areas. 2 ft plus diameter poplar trees are very common. Suckers grow 6 ft plus high within a year.

As for the experiment, I have been experimenting with the d8. Push the trees into a pile and burn them then spread all that beautiful topsoil further and wider. So far the results have been 100% successful. Easily add a zero to the crop yield in the areas that were adjacent to the trees.