seeding plans 2009

[Jagfarms]

Has everyone got their seeding plans figured out for 2009? What do you think will make money what do you think will not make money?

I have most of my seeding plans figured out.
I will seed 2/3 of out farm and summerfollow 1/3.
Of the seeded acres.
50 to 60% Durum on summer follow and maybe on some lentil stubble have not decided on that yet.
Might seed barley or canary seed on some of the lentils stubble in place of durum because of crop insurance. Could have a good crop on the summerfollow and wreck on the stubble and get no crop insurance if it is all durum. Has anyone seeded barley on your lentil stubble and if you did what kind of results did you get. I have also chemfollowed my lentil stubble in the past and it did not blow and I grew one heck of durum crop the following year.
I think durum will be a good bet as the carry over will knock the seeded acres back a bit.

15% red lentils
15% large green lentils
I think lentils will be a good bet with good movement and decent price.

10% maple peas or yellow mustard.
I think maple peas will be a better price than yellow peas. Have to find some seed. I am looking for some cdc Acer maple pea seed. I sold all my maple peas last year.

I have never had any luck with canola on our farm. It is to dry and hot here and the imput costs I think are to high for canola. I am not to sure about yellow mustard as I have never grown in before. I think yellow mustard or canary seed is a better bet than canola on our farm. The canary seed price is not to good at this time and I may have to sit on it for a year or more to get a good price. I am sitting on some from last year and there is one bin that is not full so I mays while fill it up. It stores well as well.

[SASKFARMER3]

simple JAG

2500 Spring Wheat
1000 Durum
1200 Peas (yellow and Green)
2700 Canola (last year 3000)
300 Oats (last year600)
300 Barley
Custom farm
1000 flax (oats in 08)

[SASKFARMER3]

one other thing the 2700 canola 1200 is on pea stubble.

Dropping all potash use in 2009 plus phos is going from 60 lbs down to 40 lbs nitrogen staying the same. Snow also wont have much moisture in it after the thaw. Will seed corner to corner but then the fog of last while will probably give major rain in June and drowned out the low areas. Mother nature wins all the time.

[Hopperbin]

Same crops as last year.
Yellow peas down
Canola down
soft wheat up
Hopeing the market is not going to get flooded with soft wheat next year, seems to be lots around yet for this time of year. So if someone would have some soft wheat acre intentions that would be helpfull. Seems the CWB prices are out of the market at the moment.
Sask I reduced my phosphate from 60 to 40 a few years back and never had a yield reduction. My sulpher use is up. And potash is unused. Getting a little late for changes so not likely to change anything. Not wanting to buy any seed this year as most sellers are screwed in the head with their prices anyway. I have 99 germ. 98 pure andrew if anyone interested. Reasonable price.

[Hopperbin]

Same crops as last year.
Yellow peas down
Canola down
soft wheat up
Hopeing the market is not going to get flooded with soft wheat next year, seems to be lots around yet for this time of year. So if someone would have some soft wheat acre intentions that would be helpfull. Seems the CWB prices are out of the market at the moment.
Sask I reduced my phosphate from 60 to 40 a few years back and never had a yield reduction. My sulpher use is up. And potash is unused. Getting a little late for changes so not likely to change anything. Not wanting to buy any seed this year as most sellers are screwed in the head with their prices anyway. I have 99 germ. 98 pure andrew if anyone interested. Reasonable price.

[Wheatking]

Oats down to zero this year, first time
in 15 years
Canola down 1/3
Wheat - First time I am seeding wheat
in ten years
Barley - same as last year
Peas - Down

Total acreage down this year due to
some a-hole bidding up land to
$1000/acre and $60/acre rent. Too rich
for my blood considering the prices.
Not much pencils out at a profit this
year. And I don't feel like subsidizing
this years crop with last years crop by
paying ridiculous prices for rent and
land. End Rant
Sorry about that but it pisses me off.

[furrowtickler]

wheatking, the same b/s here, without a run up in prices or if they have a short crop they will be in deep trouble. Alot of these same guys bought $1000 N as well. Just sit it out for a year or two that same $60 dirt will be $30 again and you will be around to pick up the peices from the train wreck if it happens.
Bought the rest of our Liquid seed place N for $350 tn on monday, taking delivery starting today - see there was no need to rush. Sometimes goods things come to those who wait.

[mustardman]

50% durum
50% peas and lentils
sprinkling of yellow mustard -possibly

Jag just a question ,I think you are farming in same area as I am (mostly sceptre heavy clay soils) wondering why you haven't gone to continuous cropping ? By my figures it has given us 60 % more income over 50-50. Most years chemfallow durum only beats durum on pulse stb by 5-10 bushel, and it took 2 years to grow the crop on chemfallow so you have to divide the yield by 2
There is probably more risk but with pulses and the seeding technology we have today it sure is less than when I first tried it 1974-79 (neighbours thought I had lost it then)

[Jagfarms]

Mustardman
We do farm in the Sceptre heavy clay area. I am afraid if we seed 100 percent and get a dry year like 2002 for a year or 2 it would not be good.

In 2002 we had some durum seeded on pea and lentil and chickpea stubble. The durum on the stubble went less than 10bu acre the durum on the summerfollow went 30 plus.
That year I had one field of lentils I put on summerfollow and it went 12 bu acre and less than 3 bu acre on the stubble. We combined 80 acres of lentils and did not even fill the combine hopper. I had lentils on summerfollow one other year and there was only one bu per acre difference from the stubble to sommerfollow. I do not seed pulse crops on summerfollow any more as there is not much difference in yield most years with average precip.

I like to have some summerfollow acres for durum as I know I should get a crop on the summerfollow acres even in the drought years.
If I new it would rain every year I would seed corner to corner.

In the dry years the farmers that seed 50 50 come out looking smart and on the wet years the farmers who seed 100 percent look smart.
I think a lot of it comes down to the weather.
I am not saying if I am right or I am wrong just my thinking.
Jag

[bluefargo]

I spent a number of years in SW Sask and am very familiar with Sceptre soils although I didn't farm there.


There is only a few things I know with certainty about summerfallow:
1) You are guaranteed a crop failure every second year
2) The soil is better off without summerfallow. Summerfallow is our erosion problem. I saw some horendous soil erosion on occasion - more oftn by water than wind

But having said that I understood why farmers summerfallowed

This was 20 years ago. At that time a 50/50 rotation was pretty standard. I suppose a lot has changed since then

I now farm in the dark brown soil zone.
In our area I just can't make summerfallow pencil out. Arguably summerfallow cuts your risk but you are pretty much guaranteed less income with summerfallow in your rotation in my opinion.

[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