Winter has definitely been making its presence known this last month! We have been fortunate to see decent amounts of snow since Christmas, and along with the wind, we have had a fair bit of snow drifting in bush lines, road ditches, and anywhere that catches snow. We have plowed more snow this past month than we did all of the 2020-21 winter!
Temperatures have been all over the place – we have had weeks of -25C to -45C and then a brief break with temperatures close to 0C. When it warms up we get strong winds and snow, then it cools back down again. That’s what winter is like in our part of the world – we get quite a wide range of conditions!
We have been keeping busy with hauling some grain contracts that were scheduled to move through the January-March periods. Have been able to haul most of our contracts earlier than what they were scheduled to move. Bins should be close to empty by the time spring comes.
One new contract we were able to secure for the next season is for oats going into the gluten-free market. The requirements are tight – very little tolerance for any kind of wheat/barley kernels – but we feel that with our previous rotation we should be able to manage and meet the specs. We had some oats from last year that were not committed, and were grown on canola/oat/canola/oat stubble – and they were able to meet the specs. Had 3 loads go out this month and once they are unloaded we will be able to see if our samples are similar to what is actually in the bin. If the specs are met, the premiums can be considerable – so we will be micromanaging the acres we plan to grow this upcoming season.
Besides that, we have been busy working on equipment in the shop and planning for the upcoming season.
