We all have our problems wherever we farm!!!

[Pilatus]

Suggest you look at my Canadian farming contact at www. parklandventures .com . They have received 4" of snow before finishing harvest !!!!

 

[Condi]

And you lot complain its too dry then too wet then too dry again and still manage to achieve some of the highest average yields in the world. God help you if we had any 'interesting weather' to contend with!

 

[rob1]

And you lot complain its too dry then too wet then too dry again and still manage to achieve some of the highest average yields in the world. God help you if we had any 'interesting weather' to contend with!

Think thats a bit unfair, a couple of years ago snow killed thousands of sheep in april, 2012 saw loads of corn not cut etc etc we have our fair share of "interesting weather"

 

[Brisel]

They have a point - we don't often get the kind of extremes that the big continental growers in Australia, S America, Russia, USA and Canada do. It's all relative.

How often do we lose an entire crop to hail? @Banana Bar was hit pretty badly this year but I'll bet it's a 1 in 40+ chance for a UK wheat crop but a 1 in 10 for a Mid West USA one.

 

[charlesbrown]

They have a point - we don't often get the kind of extremes that the big continental growers in Australia, S America, Russia, USA and Canada do. It's all relative.

How often do we lose an entire crop to hail? @Banana Bar was hit pretty badly this year but I'll bet it's a 1 in 40+ chance for a UK wheat crop but a 1 in 10 for a Mid West USA one.

I shall be surprised if swathed wheat under snow is a complete write off, first job I did when I went to work on a farm up in Grande Prairie , Northern Alberta in the spring was get the combine out and salvage wheat that had been under snow all winter! Surprisingly quite OK if a little dusty. It gets so cold so quickly up there that none of it chits.
(I am talking about 1970 ish though)

cb

 

[Exfarmer]

Suggest you look at my Canadian farming contact at www. parklandventures .com . They have received 4" of snow before finishing harvest !!!!

My old Canadian built Massey 865 combine had a section in the book devoted to combining in the snow and a heater in the cab

 

[Banana Bar]

They have a point - we don't often get the kind of extremes that the big continental growers in Australia, S America, Russia, USA and Canada do. It's all relative.

How often do we lose an entire crop to hail? @Banana Bar was hit pretty badly this year but I'll bet it's a 1 in 40+ chance for a UK wheat crop but a 1 in 10 for a Mid West USA one.

It was pretty bad, s barley yield down to 4.4t/ha versus 7.4 on a farm that wasn't hit, beans yielded 3.6t/ha but must of lost 1.5t and the sample was awful, see below.

Still won't insure for hail though.

 

[Pilatus]

I see Parkland Ventures are still suffering with snow hindering harvest. They have posted some more snow photos on their latest news, not looking at all good.

 

[Kevtherev]

@Blaithin

 

[Pilatus]

@Blaithin

It might be quite different in Alberta as the distances are so great.

 

[Blaithin]

No. The snow took out Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. It's just melting here, got 3-4 inches at home. Standing canola doesn't look bad but anything in swaths was covered. Standing wheat and barley is flat.

Areas around Kindersley and Biggar SK got over 6" of snow and up by a Prince Albert over a foot. Not sounding positive that they're going to get back into the fields.

Combining can be done once it freezes and in the spring, sure. But your yields will be down. People lose fields to deer over winter and there's already issues with the canola shelling out.

Stats are saying harvest is about 85% done across the prairies but most of what's left is canola. Estimates put it at 4 million tonne of canola is still on the field on AB and SK.

 

[Blaithin]

Here's a post from another forum about a farmer in SK saying what they've got left on field for canola and what it's set to lose.

 

[BenB]

Speaking to friends in southern Manitoba they haven't been badly hit at all. Harvest has gone smoothly and they're into fall NH3 banding and cultivations...looks like they are the lucky ones!

 

[Pilatus]

Oops I certainly apologise for my comment !!!
Is it rather unusual for early snow to effect such a large area of the Prairie Provinces?

 

[Blaithin]

Oops I certainly apologise for my comment !!!
Is it rather unusual for early snow to effect such a large area of the Prairie Provinces?

Yeah. There were two or three different systems but because it was cold everywhere, everywhere got snow.

We didn't get snow until 3 or 4 days after Biggar got hit and then the system we got hooked north east and buried everyone east again.

Last year it was hot so it just rained every day and made harvest hard. This year it's cold so it's snow.

 

[Pilatus]

Some pics Kenton Possberg (Parkland Ventures) sent me,of crops after the heavy snow .

Pic 3736 A neighours Wheat on the deck after snow
Pic 3743 A neighbours Canola flat on the deck which he was going to direct combine
Pic 3741 Kentons Rape in the swath after the snow
Pic 3738 Snow and ice in the centre of the swath.

So much truth in what Kenton said in his e mail "I have learned to never take the power of mother nature for granted .....she tends to humble us every couple of years". I think that is so true wherever in the world one farms.
Small amounts of snow in the centre of swaths can block sieves very quickly, so must be well thawed out before they try the combines.

 

[robbie]

My old Canadian built Massey 865 combine had a section in the book devoted to combining in the snow and a heater in the cab

I remember my neighbour who worked with the legendary Dale Stark custom cutting crew, telling me once that when up in the northern states and Canada they would often have to wait for it to get really cold before continuing combining so material would pass through the combine and stay frozen, if it wasn't cold enough it would thaw out inside and then block the sieves and walkers as it refroze on the way out.