Did the Rain really Help?

[SASKFARMER3]

Hey agstar haven't heard from you for a while how is life in the canola dome? Hello hello hello. Damb the lights must be out.just like a mushroom!

[agstar77]

Busy inhaling chemical fumes.

[TOM4CWB]

Sask,

would have been happy with 1/4 of what you got... in one shot.
1/10th at a time is dismal... but it did finally get some volunteer canola growing last week.

OH well... 3/10ths instead of 3 inches... is better than nothing!

Be thankful for small blessings year is here!

God Bless Canada... we need it out here!

[haveapulse]

It s weird year for sure...
I have watered and babied my garden all spring with dugout water. YOu would have thought this would suffice and return normal growth. Not so, it is late, and stunted. It is not just about rain, as much damage was done by the cold (at least it was a dry cold ).

The lentils are very short for cutting we can only hope they get some legs in July or a large % of the harvest will be under the cutter bars.

Like last year July will tell the story however if forecasters are right
it may not be a repeat of last year.

[wd9]

Drove about 3000 k the last week. Winnipeg to vermilion. North of winnipeg, the interlake region, is just seeded and the crops look like May 20, the ones that were seeded. South of peg towards carmen, miami etc, they were so wet last fall, had rain on snow and every day rain, the crops were seeded very late and if everything is perfect interms of fall frost they will get corn and beans etc. Nice land, nice crops. Out to minnedosa and nippewa the crops look great seeing the guys spray with the usual massive mud flings off the wheels.

From there to saskatoon it is variable but oh so late with far more of the crops looking poorer then better. Then its wierd on east side of toon they look horrible but then from toon to battleford they look pretty good. Battleford east to lloyd again some crops look good but seem to get worse. That area did get some rain earlier on. East to vermilion and on to edmonton it is ridiculous. Very rare to see a canola stand without at least half the field with nothing. Patchy rain amounts with some areas getting inch and and half and north of 16 and west a couple of 3/10 that hit the dust and evaporated. Can't really tell it rained.

Down to Tom4CDub and red deer no rain realy.

Some nice crops and areas for sure, but late. Early frosts and we are all toast regardless. Nice fall and guys will be lucky.

Here in east central AB for sure, rain won't help now no matter really what we get.

Charlie. Heard you yesterday on radio and you seem the only voice of reason to real conditions out there. In winnipeg city, it has been IDEAL growing conditions so that has a lot of influence where the media and ag never step out. With all that rain and heat, stuff grows and is beautiful.

[wd9]

Oh ya, leaf disease. Those cereal crops that looked like they were going to be nice on the way to peg, looked orange on the way back. Don't know how many guys in sask are used to spraying fungicides, but it may be a good year to at least try some. The spray tracks from the road look like it will cut about 1/3 the potential yield.

[redbaron]

Would love to share the moisture. al9 should be driving through the area east of the red river in MB today. Got close to an inch of rain last weekend. Woke up to a little better than three this morning - Saturday. Still raining. So the water is pretty bad on the late seeded crops. The further south you get. The less land you see above the water. The high moisture levels from last fall are not helping either. The past week gave us some hope. We had moisture, the heat finally came and the crops where really moving forward. So a slap in the face again. I know we all have our own situations to deal with. From past experiences you always have part of a crop with to much moisture. Yet we all know we do not survive with part of a crop anymore.

[Hopperbin]

Dam wheat is on steroids here. That is about it. everything is later but the wheat is going growing nuts.

[SASKFARMER3]

Well if we didn't have the CWB! The great HRS and Barley and Durum crop that's out their could make some real money and then we would not have to give away the canola and pea crop to pay the bills.

[charliep]

I can't forecast the future but I do know that things have to occur
just about perfect from here on in to get a crop period in much of
Alberta. Was in the N.E. corner of Alberta on my motorbike and as
you say everything is late, late, late. Combine that with minimal
rain/damage that has occurred already and there is the making of
reality.

From the cow calf meetings and other things.

July will be the determining month but I suspect we all will have to
go over the education from 2002. There was a lot of creativity in
2002 that lessened the pain of a pretty dire situation. Examples
will be around the decision to harvest crop versus use as
pasture/green feed.

Also need to look hard at existing new crop price contracts. Lower
US futures prices may open up the alternative of buying some out
of the money calls just in case the market takes off this summer
and you are in a situation of having to buy out contracts because
of no crop. You are covered to some extent in Alberta through the
variable price benefit (calculation in October) and if you took the
variable price option in Saskatchewan (calculation in July).