The weather has turned cooler almost like the end of October. What gives here, hotter than Hades, now you need your coat? Joys of living in Saskatchewan, I guess. Just as long as we don't get Jack Frost until the crop is in the bin. Even then it might not be safe. In the past we had a farmer hauling out of a bin. The elevator agent grew tomatoes. The next day the agent knocked the grade of the wheat down because his tomatoes froze in the night. The farmer, needless to say was flabbergasted. The grain was in a bin. Things haven't changed much over the years as things like this are still happening. Have a good harvest, everyone.
Last weekend I got to go fishing and for the first time in 15 or 20 years I actually caught something. Son Mike had his camper at Lac de Isles and he took Bev and I fishing. Bev caught two or three times as many fish as I did plus the biggest one. I caught one that I could keep and one little guy with milk still on his lips and the hook was almost as big as he was. Mike threw him back. Actually, Mike threw a lot of fish back that I didn't agree with. If a fish gets on my hook I plan to kill him and put him in the frying pan. Well, OK the little ones should go back. We kept three nice fish, which was all we needed for a good supper. Thank you, Mike and Brenda, for a good time.
This was a much more successful trip than the last one I was on. A couple of years ago my son-in-law Roland took me fishing at Turtle Lake and he and I washed our hooks for three or four miles up the lake. Changed hooks and washed them three or four miles back down the lake and went home. The only thing we caught was some weeds. Thank you, Rollie, for a good try, but I am a most unlucky fisherman. We ate smokies that night bought from the store. A guy should always have a backup plan.
On the home front, we have started swathing wheat. It's a most uneven crop. In one place there's a huge swath and a little farther down the field quite a bit lighter. Luckily, most of the field is good and on the whole looks like a good crop. If someone wants to know how things have worked in the growing season, be on the swather. I have noted in my own crop there is an occasional bearded head. What is it and where did that come from? I have a closed system. I grow and clean my own seed. I don't grow barley or bearded wheat. Where did this stuff come from? I have come to the conclusion it must be the moose or deer that travel across my place to get to the other side. They ate some of that bearded grain on one of my neighbour's fields and pooped out on my field.
I also noted the Buctril M tank mix is not tough enough on some of the broadleaf weeds. I used it because I seem to be inundated with buckwheat. It did a good job on the buckwheat as I have not seen one plant. I have seen some cleavers along the edge and sow thistle was only set back by the spray. They must be dealt with later.
We are putting two 30-foot swaths together so the combine picks up 60 feet a pass. It is the best way I know to get a lot of acres done with the least trouble. The combine runs full and you move along at two or three miles an hour. It is actually relaxing. I don't care how big a straight cut header you have or how fast you go, you will not do more acres per day. How relaxed are you cutting at eight miles per hour? When you hear someone extolling straight cutting, you instantly know three things about him. He is a flat lander, he is probably one of those brain dead zero tillers and a lot of his income comes from off farm.
I think I am one of the few still swathing. The other fella's wheat is getting sprayed in the area to make it ready to straight cut. I am not a fan of straight cutting. Before the advent of pre-harvest spraying, I used to say straight cutting occurred in October, it usually was feed wheat and it usually was tough or damp. Not my idea of how to run a railroad. There is no profit in feed wheat. Tough or damp wheat is just a time bomb of trouble waiting to come. Who needs it? Now with the high clearance sprayers and cheap Roundup it is a different ball game.
The elevator companies are doing their thing again. Sign this contract if you want to deliver. There seems to be no commitment on their part as to when you can deliver. Their price has not improved from last year. The Wheat Board monopoly was killed and now we have a grain company monopoly. We are not better off. The grain companies sold our wheat for double what they paid us. I have looked into it and the freight to the coast and elevation charge at the elevator alone comes to $1,800 a super B load. That is very tempting but you are a long ways from home if you have truck trouble. What price would you receive at the coast, based on what you get here or what it is loaded in the ships at? I have a friend at Eastend and he tells me an American firm has bought a trackless elevator down there. He has locked in $9 a bushel for durum right off the combine delivered to this elevator. Then it will be trucked to the United States. Where is this so called open market here?
The area peas have all been killed and some guys are starting to combine. We will wait for coffee row to get yield data.The story is only as good as the telling.
Some canola is getting swathed, mine is too green. Some other fields are too green, too. One fella has caused some discussion at the coffee shop. He has apparently put 130 pounds of nitrogen plus all the other groceries. He has a green tangle jungle but boy does he have pods. This should be a real Pepsi challenge test for the swather man. He has spent the money. I hope he gets rewarded.
Harvest is here, do not get too tired and be safe. Here is hoping for no breakdowns.
Joke of the week from Dwayne Mitchell: A farmer was driving down the road at a brisk clip when suddenly behind him appeared a police car, siren blaring, lights flashing. The officer got him stopped and came up to the car. "Did you know that your wife fell out of the back of the truck several miles back?" asked the policeman. "Oh thank God," said the farmer, "I thought I had gone deaf."
As my uncle Harold used to say "Ooooh boy!"
