For the week of July 14th – 20th
We managed to pick up some moisture over the weekend – 7mm up north, 14mm down south, and 25mm in the center areas around the shop. The moisture was welcome – even though the temperatures have remained cool, we started to see moisture stress showing up on some of the earlier planted fields through premature ripening and leaf loss. This moisture won’t fix those losses, but will maintain current conditions. Some fields have lodged crop in low area, and stressed / prematurely ripening on the knolls… wide range of field conditions! The earliest canola has pretty much dropped all its flowers – a rough rule of thumb for canola harvest is 6 weeks after it finishes flowering. This rain should help it fill and hopefully get bigger / plumper seeds.
We hosted a tour from a group of farmers from Kazakhstan last week – always enjoy hosting tours from people from other areas. We typically host 3-4 tour groups per year over the summer and fall periods – it is great to meet all kinds of individuals who have an interest in farming.
It has been a busy last few weeks with grain movement We typically market 50% or more of our grain to move in the summer period to capture the carry in the futures market and the more aggressive basis levels. At times we have had 4 different grains being loaded on semi’s at the same time in the main yard! It’s been going on all different directions – Winnipeg, Harrowby, Yorkton, Clavet, Colonsay, Saskatoon, and some locally.
These next couple weeks will be more quite at the farm – most of our employees are taking holidays during this time, so they can be refreshed and ready for harvest! We don’t have too much work that needs to be done on our harvest equipment – more or less go through everything and make sure it is all in good running condition. We went through most of it last fall after harvest, and the combines also went through shop at our local dealer for a “Greenlight” inspection.
The weather looks to be between 23-27C this next week, with the next opportunity for moisture looking around the end of the month.
