This is another chapter in the same book….We finally got the combines out and managed to get a half section (320 acres) of legacy barley harvested, and as we moved to the next field, the clouds came in and we got dumped on with rain yet again. This is the third week in a row we have had a major storm. The forecast was for 60% chance of showers on Friday and Saturday. On Friday we were watching a storm system out west that was moving towards the NE, which if it kept the same path, would have missed us completely. By the time it got to Humboldt it had swelled and became a massive storm. We got variable amounts of rainfall – with between 14-30mm falling across the farm. We were fortunate to miss the hail, but the rain came with a heavy wind, and further lodged the crop down. Some places there was not a single plant that remained standing.
Then on Saturday we had a nice start to the day, but by the evening storms started to build in the north. We had another major storm hit the most northern parts of our farm, and ended up getting some moderate hail damage on roughly 1,000 acres. Sunday was an overcast, cool day, with a slight drizzle on and off through the afternoon.
Finally, the forecast is looking like we will have a window of dry, hot days coming up. Today is still forecast to be on the cool side, but the remainder of the week looks to have temperatures in the upper 20’s to lower 30’s. The best part of this forecast is the wind – they are calling for 20-30km winds, which if verifies, will help to dry the straw out.\
We are pleased with the results of the first half section – the yield was satisfactory and the quality looks to be decent as well. We are hoping that later tomorrow we can start back up again. The swathers will get back into the fields today, and we will either try to combine that tomorrow or we will try straight cutting some standing oats. The first oats we will be harvesting are part of our gluten free contract – and we will have to clean all the combines, grain cart and auger out prior to taking those fields off.
