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Rain Delay – Seeding Stalled out at 75%

On Saturday we had a storm blow in during the late evening hours and ended up with between 15-30mm across all our center and north land. Our south land received 10mm. That same storm system gave between 50-100mm of rain 100km north of us along with 6″ of hail. We were not forecasted to receive any moisture on Saturday so this was unexpected. While it would have been nice to get a couple more days of seeding in prior to this, it is nice to see some moisture fall after the exceptional drought we experienced last year.

We had a good week of progress last week. Between last Sunday to Saturday evening we managed to put in just over 50% of the crop! That is a record for our farm. Even though we are down a person, we still managed to keep the drills all rolling without having to wait for fuel, seed or fertilizer. We are pleased with how far along we are – yes it is late – but given that on the 19th of May we had 6″ of snow and 20mm of rain – this is a good spot to be in. The weather looks to be cooler for a few days but also dry. Hopefully, we can get going again by Wednesday. We have 100% of our Synergy Barley, CPS wheat, and Gluten-Free Oats completed. Canola is at 77%, Legacy Barley is 39% and our regular oats is 14% completed.

Flea beetle levels are high again this spring. The first canola we planted went from no damage to heavy damage in 3 days. This year it seems like they are doing damage at an earlier stage than in prior years. The seed treatment is supposed to give us at least 21 days control, but we don’t seem to be getting much more than 10-12 days. That includes the time it takes for emergence. This is getting to be a huge problem in Western Canada. As the governments restrict the use of seed treatment products that control these pests, it forces farmers to have to make one or two passes with an insecticide that is non-selective and kills beneficial insects as well. The net effect would be better if we could just have access to the better seed treatment – they don’t include the negative effects of the insecticide, nor the increased usage of diesel for making extra passes.

 

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