I think the monsoons are over at the moment. This year we can never be sure. We have had close to 10 inches of rain here in the last two weeks. There is not a dry slough or water run on the place. Guys who are spraying are leaving bad tracks in the field but the timeliness of the spraying dictates the job has to be done. Bad tracks or a dirty crop, those are the choices. Swathing the same way as the sprayer went means you only bounce at the end of the field, hopefully.
I have no rain marked now until July 10. Just a one day rain so the hay is not perfect. I know from past experience cows eat blackish hay, but there is more good haying weather than rain. Good luck haying. Looks like a heavy crop. Remember to rebuild your hay stocks. A shrewd cowboy knows having more than one year of feed is just sound planning. Those who don't, will be buying high priced hay! Ouchy! Ouchy!
The disasters just keep coming in Alberta. First the floods and now a railway bridge collapsed in Calgary. Six cars were trapped on the bridge as the rail under the cars gave away. Luckily the railway was able to pump off the load and get the cars off the bridge without them tumbling into the river. Those railway crews need a medal. An extremely dangerous job and done in quick time.
I don't know what's moving in the south lines but we are having 10 or 12 trains a day here on the tracks just a mile north of me. Any time we have all these trains means there is trouble on the other lines.
In Ottawa the RCMP are investigating Senator Mike Duffy's expense accounts. About time I would say. Other senators need to be worried. Which one is next or have they all covered their tracks by now? Those who would willingly commit fraud should be run out of office and banished to whereever they came from. Who needs that kind of character sucking on the public tit!
I see the Saskatchewan Government is passing legislation to set up the Saskatchewan Wheat Commission and the Saskatchewan Barley Commission. These two commissions will subtract 50 cents a tonne of your wheat and barley sales. That will generate $4.3 million for wheat and $1 million for barley. They will use the money to fund research and promotion of sales of wheat and barley.
Well, I am against it. We just got rid of the Canadian Wheat Board that used our money like it was their own. Where is my share of the contingency fund? What happened to the money spent on the two lake freighters? Where did that go? What happened to the farmer's money that bought 3,400 railway cars? Will we ever see anything for that money? The freight rate is almost a dollar a bushel so I don't see any benefit to the farmers for that money in rail cars.
All we need is another bunch of happy-to-be suits spending our money. You could say this brings up visions of sailors with a credit card in a whore house. As soon as there is a fund of money available some slick talking shyster will show up with some scheme to get his hands on it. The last time we had money from check offs the Monsanto thing happened. Monsanto talked Agriculture Canada into developing Roundup ready wheat. Monsanto provided the technician and Ag. Canada had all the other expenses. It was developed at Scott Research Farm and I have seen it in the field. It doesn't look any different from other wheat. Our customers for Canadian wheat did not want genetically modified wheat and it was not brought forward. If it had been approved, Monsanto would have a wheat it could charge tech fees for the next 10 years or more and Ag. Canada, who had the major expenses, would have had nothing. I don't need deals like that and no other farmer does either.
Joke of the week: There were these two people running a lighthouse. One day as they looked out across the rough water they saw a little boat coming. Suddenly the little boat overturned in the water and the man in it was thrown out. The two lighthouse keepers got their boat in the water and after some hard rowing they managed to get to the man and rescued him. When they got back to shore the man thanked them profusely and said he was out there because he was checking to see if they had paid their income tax!
Grandson Victor has told me yet another joke: What kind of music does a rabbit like? Answer: Hiphop. Hahaha
