John Deere 8335RT with tiller doing first pass

[SASKFARMER3]

Nice post pictures please. Soil looks on
lighter side from the pictures?

[wilagro]

More power to you guys farming up in that part of Helberta. It is a very uncertain future up in that area of the province but maybe you will "get lucky" or "global Warming" may enable things.

If I were a young man again I would gamble on farming that far north but be prepared for some rough years ahead. Lot of jobs in the resource extraction industries could save your bacon if things don't work out.

Mixed farming would probably be the best bet same as it was for the early pioneers of my father's and grandfather's days when they came to this province. Dependance on grain and oilseeds farming alone could be mighty risky.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya you bet will post pic's. Hopefully Joe puts
some of that FCC advertising money toward
engineering a photo and video uploaded toolbar
for Agriville

[grassfarmer]

Good point wilagro, unfortunately the mixed farming
approach is usually abandoned in favour of
unsustainable monoculture cropping. I would doubt
global warming will be much of a friend to that part
of northern Alberta. Maybe warm it up a degree but
more likely to suffer worse droughts in an area
already bad for them. How far are you from
permafrost Allfarmer - 50 miles or less? that's got to
be extremely marginal land by any definition.

[farmaholic]

Grassfarmer: It may be monoculture(per field) on a yearly basis but long term is anything but. How many different species do you have grazing on your grass that you use to make a living on?

[farmaholic]

Grassfarmer: It may be monoculture(per field) on a yearly basis but long term is anything but. How many different species do you have grazing on your grass that you use to make a living on?

[grassfarmer]

Lets compare apples to apples. I have many, many
species growing in my pastures often 15-20 in one
small field. Asking how many species I use to harvest
it is like asking you how many different types of
combine you use - irrelevant to the topic.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya pretty marginal land on Tuesday some may
sell for 275k/ quarter. 2 droughts in my 9 yrs here

[farmaholic]

Grassfarmer: takes much more iron to get a crop to the bin than a combine. If you don't agree with modern grain farming that is fine with me. Things have changed. Grain farms have flourished here. Soils are improving with diverse crop rotations and no summmerfallow(for nearly 20 years). We grow cereals(wheat durum barley canaryseed), flax, canola(mustard), pulses(peas lentils). If that is your definition of unsustainable monoculture so be it.

[Ronski]

Farmaholic is correct. I've worked up
there in the winter (and short summer
stints) for years. Its an amazing area
with great potential.
Todays mixed farm up there (and
elsewhere) is grain farming and making
60 to 100 thousand off-season who wants
to **** around with chickens, pigs,
cows, goats and a partridge in a pear
tree?
Also remember that this is virgin soil.
What weeds do they have? They can push
rotations way harder than we do because
there is no history there.