Latest rain a boon to farmers and cowboys with green feed

Another week gone, a little sun, a bunch of rain. Just what the doctor ordered to fill the crop. We think about two and a half inches. More rain than we have had all year. Of course nothing marked on my hoar frost calendar. This is very nice for a farmer but the cowboys will be stressing  because first no hay and now they can’t get the little bit they have baled. Anyone with green feed should be happy as this is really going to make it come. There should be lots of green feed bales.

I was south of the river and I noticed a field of wheat that the original growth was about three feet high. Second growth was about six inches higher and will be half of the crop yield. This crop is going to be late for harvest and there is nothing the farmer can do about it but wait.

When I was farming I liked to grow that Columbus wheat. It was good stuff, could hold on in a drought, easy threshing. I liked the variety. It had one very bad characteristic. It just didn’t know winter was coming and would be sending up more tillers and trying to make more wheat. One year we had a year like this, dry at first, then lots of rain. The Columbus wheat started to do its thing, lots of second growth. As harvest neared the end, I got antsy and thought I should cut it before a killing frost came along and ruined the grade. If you grew Columbus wheat, you were used to having to cut it a little on the green side so I swathed it, hoping the green would cure out. I was wrong. I had 85 per cent nice No.1 wheat and 14 per cent green. There was no way to get those green kernels out so the grain graded Canada Feed.

For those with a similar problem today you have only one choice. You have to wait. Either the fall will be long and frost free and your wheat will mature or Jack Frost will come make it a Canada Feed. You lose nothing by waiting. Either the Big Guy will give you No. 1 or Jack Frost and Da Devil will make it Canada Feed. You must realize, you are not in control here.

On the home front, things are going along in the shop. The 7.3 F-350 environmental polluter truck is running and out of here. CSI detective Jaco found the corroded wire and fixed it. Ty has been rebuilding an old Mayrath auger. We are going to use it in the elevator to auger grain into the grinder/pelleter. He has the new tube welded on, the flighting repaired. A second-hand electric motor has been found and now we have to figure out motor mounts. He is learning welding, so he has had to grind out some and redo. At this place you must learn to do by doing. He is doing fine. We have the  deer killer bumper to put on the new truck that I bought. Maybe next week.

In politics the first big debate was on with political leader from four parties. I am very interested in politics so I was watching. Jeeze, they were boring. There was a football game between Edmonton and British Columbia on another channel. What is a guy to do? I watched the football game. B.C. won in the final minute of play. Who won the debate, anyway?

A big shout out of congratulations to Bob Kenderdine who turned 80 years young July 22, same birthday as mine. I saw him in Keranda and he looks good. Many more, Bob, and keep healthy.

Joke of the week: At the Saskatchewan Roughrider practice, a white substance was discovered on the field. Cory Chamlin, the coach, immediately stopped practice. The RCMP were called in. The anti-terrorist police was called and a swat team. After an investigation it was determined that the white powder was the goal line. Practice was resumed because the team never get down there anyway. As my uncle Harold used to say, “OOOOH Boy!”