One field will make it!

[SASKFARMER3]

Took a drive south of Regina yesterday and Bingo just a mile south of city is a thin (OK very thin) crop of HRS it is turning a golden yellow, It would beat the frost if it arrives. Then a guy swath his lentils at curve by Milestone. Canola looking good all way to weyburn, Durum has white patches and odd field grass green. But north weyburn there are two fields that could be swath next week in canola. Lots of lentils are desiccated, Very little HRS in this area. Again a week ago they had rain and Canola did change quite a bit. Barley is turning fast.
But then as you go north, Indian head is Best crops every north of town, Balcarres is picking up with rain, but they are late late late, Melville is starting to change and same all north to KS.
Simply late but moisture isn't a problem, Ok at weyburn maybe to much moisture is problem, Sat water laying every where. One semi in Slough north of city.

[jamesb]

Here in se sask,this last weeks very hot temps did force some crops along. We could have used this rain 10 days ago. We probably lost some yield but more crop is going to make grade if frost holds off another couple weeks. We could be desicating wheat on some fields now but we are going to finish up Regloning the lentils when the weather clears up.

[parsley]

I presume you have checked if your major lentil buyers and consumers like to eat them with a fresh spray of reglone.

Do you have recipes? Pars

[gregpet]

Well Pars its not a scientific study but check out today's poll a ctv.ca about consumer choice regarding organics. You have a great business and going organic has worked well for you. But, its not everyone's preferred method of crop production and, in my opinion, not sustainable in the long run. We can agree to disagree but that is the beauty of having the ability to chose what an individual feels is tjhe best choice for their own operation.

[checking]

Jamesb option was to swath them like the guy at the Milestone curve, but most get pretty tired after the first 1/2 hour of forking them into the combine off the fenceline. It's not just the reglone. Pars wouldn't agree with the spring weed control applications, or the fungicide treatments either. So it really boils down to whether the customer is prepared to buy what james is producing. The record says that they are, and they are using them in their recipes.

[parsley]

Sunday is a perfect day for throwing a word grenade just so you don't get complacent.

Glad you have buyers coming out your yangyang. Particularly when you've asked them what they prefer and hence pay so well. Pars

[furrowtickler]

Organics works well for some, for some it has been a disaster. In a perfect world no fert, herbicides or funcides and drydowns may seem wounderfull to the consumer. But is there a real health benifit? I know I would love to ditch those expenses, but I also know half the world would starve within one year without them. JMO.

[grefer]

Glad to hear your all concerned about the starving as the reason for using sprays.There shouldn't be anyone without food after the amount you all spend on sprays etc.Just a thought.

[Jay-mo]

SW MB, some winter wheat has been harvested, barley is almost ready to go, some early hrs has turned alot and some of the early canola is just barely starting to turn color. Crops look really good.

Organics, gotta love the fact that all the big corporations are now marketing "organic food" in the grocery stores often at the same prices as "normal" products. So much for the huge premiums and the back-to-basics ma and pa approach that started it all.
At least some of the organic crops around here will survive a frost mostly because they are usually growing about four or five crops on the same field not to mention the weeds.

[parsley]

Most farmers' nightmare is weeds.Farmers have been taught to hate them. Every ad tells you so. One weed in a field represents failure. Yield is the be all, end all.

So most farmers work to grow more and more. Breaking up the ditches. Levelling every slough. Just to get twenty bushels more.

Meantime, look at the prices.

You are growing more and more for people who cannot afford to buy what you grow.

Farmers are operating touch and go. Most have an operating loan from hell. Or an advance from Hell's right hand helper. Farmers don't get rich on farming.

Consumers all over the world can not afford to buy what you offer. Think about the phrase, "food aid", and tell me how well your production efforts have helped either the buyer or the grower.

And then take a good look at who benefits.

Sit down and pencil it out. And don't try and bullshit yourself.


Pars

[vvalk]

Pars
I had 7 really good buddies that I went to university with. Of the seven 3 are engineers( some with MBA's), 2 are computer scientists, one runs a seismic crew and one is an architect. If you added all their salaies combined they wouldn't make what I make let alone when you add in asset accumilation. So maybe your not making money but lets not sell farming or all farmers short.

[checking]

This is the second time in my life that I've heard this. "One weed in a field represents failure." Wrong Pars. Chemicals represent control of weeds. They never represents 100% control. Read the label. I was to a meeting many, many years ago where a chemist explained that in any given field there was an fraction of a weed population that would be resistant to the chemical you were applying. You had basically eight bullets for each group of chemicals that you could fire. You could fire all eight in a row, and your field would be taken over by the resistant weed population, rendering that chemical useless forever more on that field. Or you could rotate your groups and stave off selecting for resistance. After completing a 20 minute detailed explanation of chemical use and weed resistance, one clown stood up and said, "When I go out to the field to spray, I go to kill 100% of the weeds." From the back of the room could be heard the comment, "talk about missing the point."

[Jay-mo]

Most of the organic farmers I've seen look like the ones not making any money.

[cottonpicken]

Different strokes for different folks.

[sumdumguy]

I have seen Parsley's operation and I can tell you, there aren't any more weeds than on the farm where we grew Lentils for 25 years. we were restricted to Sencor, so you know the rest of the story.

I think Parsley was making more money than we were and having a lot more fun than we were, with a lot fewer inputs and a lot less stress.

Not all organic farms are the same. I know some that have been taken over by thistle, but Parsley and her husband have designed various inmplements and row cropping seeders where they can manage the weeds.

Parsley's op looks pretty sustainable to me, probably been at it for 30 years, heh Pars?