Slight Harvest Delay

If I had actually got started harvesting this year this would be considered a delay. In reality it just pushes the start date further towards winter since I never got started yet. We got away lucky compared to SW Sask. where there are literally snow drifts and deep snow from what I hear. This snow can't make the grain any wetter as it was already thoroughly soaked but it will add a little water to the already dangerously muddy ground. Stuck combines and swathers will be the norm, unless the ground freezes up first! Grain quality suffers a little with every rain on ripe crop. At this point I wish I'd had 100% hail damage in that last big storm.
This morning's view out the window.

Final Garden Update 2019

Still too wet to do any harvesting in the field but I was able to finish digging potatoes today. Pretty fair crop and should be more than I need. Possible snow in the forecast inspired me to get busy and get it done a little early. Hope the snow stays away but rain is a guarantee according to the forecast. Just more of the same old thing.

Last Day Of Summer

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Last Day Of Summer

Since Monday was the first day of Autumn I guess I will call Sunday the last day of summer. I took a drive in the Merc along one of the scenic creekside roads for a few pictures. Looked like a great harvest day. And it would have been if the grain in the fields was not still recovering from numerous rain soakings. The sample I tested later that afternoon was almost 20% moisture which is well above safe storage levels. Fine if you have a dryer to deal with it. But does a dryer even pay now? Propane fuels a lot of them and our new carbon tax applies to it increasing the cost up to 8% according to some. The grain is already below last year's prices and now, downgraded by rain damage (sprouting) it will be worth even less. Likely feed grade. So increase our "carbon footprint" to dry grain that is barely profitable already? At this point I would have been better off to get 100% hail damage to all my crops and collect the insurance.

You guessed , it rained again this morning.

So now blogger only allows photos to be added from online storage? Guess that means no picture today. Here is a video of Sunday's drive. More satisfying than harvesting damp grain.

Last Day Of Summer

Since Monday was the first day of Autumn I guess I will call Sunday the last day of summer. I took a drive in the Merc along one of the scenic creekside roads for a few pictures. Looked like a great harvest day. And it would have been if the grain in the fields was not still recovering from numerous rain soakings. The sample I tested later that afternoon was almost 20% moisture which is well above safe storage levels. Fine if you have a dryer to deal with it. But does a dryer even pay now? Propane fuels a lot of them and our new carbon tax applies to it increasing the cost up to 8% according to some. The grain is already below last year's prices and now, downgraded by rain damage (sprouting) it will be worth even less. Likely feed grade. So increase our "carbon footprint" to dry grain that is barely profitable already? At this point I would have been better off to get 100% hail damage to all my crops and collect the insurance.

You guessed , it rained again this morning.

So now blogger only allows photos to be added from online storage? Guess that means no picture today. Here is a video of Sunday's drive. More satisfying than harvesting damp grain.

https://youtu.be/53KaR4_L3jM

On The Positive Side

Well, last night's storm created a bit more bin space as some humorous farmer used to say. My oat field has hardly any oats left in the heads. Most threshed out on the ground by the heavy rain and hail. So there will be less trucking to do through the mud. Less dusty oats to handle.
Canola? Not sure if theres any positives in that. There will be less grain but the same amount of straw to handle. By some miracle the swaths did not blow apart in the strong wind that flattened all the grass.
 Wheat? Again, the only positive there is that the crop was not beaten into the ground. A bad hail storm can do that. Most of mine will still be able to be cut and go through the combine. Reduced yield of course and we won't even talk about quality. It was suffering already before this last big rain and will likely downgrade to feed now. (Less than $5 a bushel).
No broken windows which is almost a miracle the way it was hammering on the glass.
Could always be worse. We could get frost to further downgrade the grain quality. Or snow to lay it flat on the ground so as to be impossible to pick up. Guess it is a good year to have some kind of crop insurance.
More rain in the forecast so the combines staying in the shed.

Short Drive In the Merc Fall 19

Though I've lived in this country all my life it still amazes me the extremes we get in weather. Last week so cold I needed jacket, toque, coveralls working outside. Even had the furnace running in the mornings and evenings. Now today it was almost too hot to work. Temp well over 80 degrees by noon. We sure need the heat though. That oat hay I cut the end of August is still absolutely soaked. The ground under it is mud and in places there is water standing. True its a creek but it was dry enough to seed this spring. I need to turn those swaths or the under side will never dry. But that ground won't support a tractor. Canola swaths are still wet and showing mold inside from all the rain they've had on them. Standing wheat looks almost harvest ready until you look closer and see the green heads. By this date last year most of that wheat was in the bin and dry. No green.

Oats I have only observed from a distance but they are sure to be too green to  harvest yet. Lucky I didn't swath them or they would be soaked like the hay swaths.

Much as I don't like the heat, we need another week or two of it if there is any hope for harvesting. Sounds like we only get a few days before the next rain.

On the positive side, here is a couple of minutes of rear bumper video on my old favourite 52 Mercury from yesterday. Autumn colours are starting to show.

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Lets Try Some Baling

The day after turning the oat swaths I had to try baling as it was supposed to rain the next day. It baled easy but that hay was so damp I didn't dare bale anymore as it would surely heat. I've done it before and had some bales get pretty hot with no significant damage but one of these times I'm thinking its going to backfire and spoil the feed. So today the swaths have another inch of rain on them. They can't get any wetter.

Raking With 2140

Strange weather continues and crops very slow to ripen. The oats I swathed over a week ago got an inch or more of rain on them and I thought maybe if I turned them over with the rake it would help dry so I could bale. It was tough going at times with the rake wheels plugging up on the wet straw but I managed to get it mostly turned. They needed a good wind and heat to dry down enough to safely bale but I guess it won't happen. I tried a couple of bales this evening but they came out damp and I quit. Figured it was no point baling wet hay and having it spoil so I'll take a chance the swaths will eventually get some drying weather before winter sets in and I can bale them.

The standing wheat? Forget about it. Still way too many green heads in it. More rain forecast for this coming week so its still a waiting game.

Canola Swathing 2019

Its a cold windy day trying to rain. Turn on the lights and furnace and do a little video editing. This time yesterday I was swathing canola with the AC on to keep the cab cool enough. Typical Saskatchewan. Freeze one day and sweat the next.

Good to have the canola all done as a lot of it was over ripe and shelling out on the reel as I worked. As usual a day late for the job.