seeding plans 2009

[mustardman]

Jag over the long haul it Definitely pays off big time. Here are my stubble yields all on Stubble wet years and dry years combined.

11 year stb durum 36.68 average
11 year stb peas 37.64 average
8 year stb kabuli 1500 lbs "
6 year stb y. mustard 663 lbs "
2 year green lentils 2160 lbs "
Canary only once on stb and it ran 15 beside my stb durum at 55

We always soil test the pulse stb and aim for the 40 bushel area which used to mean 150 lbs of 34-17-0 (51 lbs of actual N ) but the longer in zero till we have noticed recomendations have come down to around 40 lbs N

[mustardman]

I guess I wasn't fair to the Birdseed ,it was a wet year 1999 and I didn't realize I had aphids in it till harvest time and then I saw all the lady bugs in the grain tank - they knew the aphids were there, I did not.
So the yield was probably cut big time

Still if your insisting on growing canary it doesn't do well on stubble due to poor root structure

[Jagfarms]

Mustardman what is your average rain fall from April to october?
The year I would seed 100 percent of our land would be the year we have a drought. I was thinking of seeding 100 percent of one section that I cash rent for a few years and compare it to our other land that we seed 2 thirds of. I am a bit scared to jump right in seeding everything.
The last two years we have had 11 inches of rain but an average year would be around 6 to 8 inches from April to October.
Jag

[Jagfarms]

Our canary seed yielded 30 bu acre on chemfollow and our durum yielded 60 bu acre on chemfollow. Little bit less imput cost for canary seed but unless it is over 30 cents pound would have been better of with durum last year.

[mustardman]

Jagfarms, yes I suppose we are in that 6 -8 inches for rainfall during growing season. Our land is spread around some in 168 rest in 229. Airdrills have made it an easier transition into continuous cropping for most guys. We went from min till in about 1974 to zero till with highdisturbance seeding (discers) in the '80's to zero till with airdrill in 1995. Started growing pulses and have been continuous for 11 years.

I just wish that 40 years ago we would had airdrills. We would have been able to have 2 or 3 times as many families around here today. You need alot of land to be viable when your 50-50 ,but when your continuous you can get by with a lot Less land.
Unfortunately everyone in Southwest sask kept expanding (when 50-50 using discers) so we lost huge population and now that more intensive cropping is possible with air drills and cropping rotations its sad as huge land bases have been set up under the assumtion of only seeding half of it. The bigger the farms got the smaller the towns became

[mustardman]

A comment on canary and yellow mustard. Both of them are good crops to grow Every year , and sell every Five. lol.
It sounds like you've grown birdseed enough to know its a grow and hold crop much like yellow mustard. Yellow mustard seems to have a big spike every seven years. Although if you could have got in $.39 contracts early this year that would have been worth signing.

[Jagfarms]

Mustardman what kind of openers do you have on your air seeder or air drill? Are you using a disk drill?
We are presently using a air drill since 1998 with a paired row stealth opener. The seed comes out the top in a 3 inch spread and the fertilizer is placed below. I guess we would be min till and not zero till. We are in rm 230 and 231. We might have to hold on to the canary seed for a year or two to get over 30 cents for it the way it is looking now.

[Jagfarms]

Mustardman what kind of rotation are you doing? Durum pulse durum?

[mustardman]

jagfarms you would still be considered zero till. We use flexi-coil 5000 with atomjet openers (sideband granular)
I just love these openers. We used stealth sideband openers when we first got the drill but after 3 years I went to atomjet. The stealth openers are not very Stealthy on heavy clay soils. They rip and tear it open and you could have a Major Wreck on a dry spring. The atomjet places seed in narrow band and fertilizer in narrow band beside on the same level. We have had excellent results and they have saved us alot of fuel as they are Much easier to pull than the stealth. They wear Extremely well,we have approx 20000 acres on them and I have just replaced ones behind tractor tires.

I like the Idea of disk drill but I still prefer the seeding job of a hoe drill on pulse stubble .It looks like the field will blow away before the crop comes thru with disk on gumbo, it leaves soil just like gunpowder in tire tracks especially on lentil stb.
However I would like to be able to use a stripper header, have 3ft durum straw and then seed lentils or peas into it. Lentils shine seeding into tall stubble. For now I will keep my hoe.
Crop rotation is mostly durum -pulse but I do a durum-pulse-durum-oilseed on some land. Canola isnt consistent on stubble in SW Sask and Yellow Mustard you can't seed where you have lots of wild mustard

[mustardman]

Jag did you get any moisture out of this system yesterday ?
We got some rain and small amount of wet snow. We were totally black before and the only snow was small amount in trees. It was looking too much like the end of April instead of the end of March - hope we get some more-
The atomjet openers I told you of are very popular around here now even the local co-op stocks them.
And as far as continuous cropping I am not the only one around here, probably 80-90% of the acres north of #32 hiway are continuous in schvclay soils and huge area in clay-loam west of town
Amyways talk to you again-