We had a decent week of harvest – it was a slow start, most of the crop is still immature and not ready, but we did enough to get everything working and tested out, and by the end of last week more crop was getting mature enough to just keep on going.
The first indications are – up north we are getting 40-50% of a normal crop; down south we are getting closer to 20% of a normal crop. We did two different varieties of barley, found that one variety is able to withstand severe drought conditions better. Hoping that the third variety of barley we planted is better – it looked the best all season. Did a quarter of oats as well and it is about 35% of normal – but very lightweight.
We also started to preharvest some wheat and canola. So far straight combining has been working well, and we plan on taking almost the whole crop straight this year rather than swathing – except for about 2,500 acres of canola that is not a pod shatter-resistant variety.
This next week should be a good week of progress – should be able to keep on rolling without running into immature crops.