Mackerel Sky

"Mackerel sky, mackerel sky, never long wet and never long dry". Thats the old saying that came to mind when I took this photo on last Saturday on what was the nicest day we have had yet this year. Warm and sunny with no wind. But the saying was true, the weather did not stay long dry for in less than 24 hours it was snowing. Then the wind got up from the north drifting the new snow into the trenches that my driveway has become. The poor old Cockshutt 40 is having to work far harder than any sixty year old tractor should pushing that snowblower this winter. Today's snow blowing was the heaviest work yet this winter. Maybe the driveway will stay open longer this time although more snow flurries are predicted in a couple of days.
Incidentally, the recent video I made on the "mackerel sky " day showing the tractor and hammer mill at work has run afoul of the safety police over on New Ag Talk forums as some seem to think my cavalier attitude towards farm safety is a bad influence on younger viewers. Responses ranged from "yes it is very dangerous to its nobody elses g.d. business how he works on his own farm. Obviously I have assessed the risks and decided they are low enough that I won't be changing my work habits any time soon.
Grain is finally starting to move, well sort of. Oats looked good at $3.75 a bushel today so I have committed a couple of semi loads to sell as soon as there is room, or roads are passable. Always fun trying to arrange trucking in the spring and work around the spring breakup.
Wheat is dropping in price. Canola price is good but I am sold out. Flax is also good in the high $14 range and I was ready to sell but found out that I can't until I have my flax tested for gmo triffid genes Its a crock but is one of the hoops we have to jump through to please the anti-gmo crowd. To my knowledge nobody had ever come up with any sound evidence that genetically modified flax seeds are any threat to our health. But as they say, the customer is always right, even when he is wrong. Anyway, the seed testing labs will be happy to take our money for the test.
I have no doubt that in a few years we will have GMO roundup ready flax just like the GMO canola we have grown successfully for years.  Theres big money to be made in those tech fees and monsanto needs it.

Mackerel Sky

Looking like Spring

First calf of 2010, well spring is definitely advancing here in the frozen north. That little calf born last week had a few cold days but should be fine now that it is warming up. Saw 50 degrees on the thermometer today so the snow is going fast, not that we had as much as a usual winter anyway. Concern is already being raised as to the shortage of snowmelt water. Could be a dry spring. Not necessarily a disaster as we can still get rains after spring seeding to produce a crop.
I'm in the midst of hauling wheat to the cleaning plant for cleaning. With a little luck it will be going into the ground in about a month.
In spite of all the uncertainty concerning the GMO/Triffid flax situation I have spoken for some certified Sorel flax seed in hopes of growing a field of flax this year. Its a newer variety from the Bethune I have been growing but according to what I hear it is still not a sure thing that it will be free of gmo traces.
Flax prices continue their downward spiral. Glad I sold at $8.50 when I had the chance as theres no telling when or if the price will improve. Canola still pretty flat with just minor ups and downs in the price. Not enough to open up the canola bins on this farm just yet.

Flax Follies

This Triffid flax problem just won't go away. For those that don't know, Triffid flax was a genetically modified variety of flax introduced in the 1990s but never officially released to the public for production. A couple of months ago some alert testers detected some minute traces of the Triffid gene in a Canadian shipment of flax to Europe. That pretty well closed the doors to anymore of our flax being sold to the European market.
The latest solution seems to be testing all flax grown here to see if it contains the Triffid gene. The cost of that test is about $110 and guess who pays for that test? The farmer of course. Apparently we will not be allowed to deliver any flax for sale unless it shows a clean bill of health (below the benchmark figure for triffid content.)
Luckily mine has tested negative although the test did indicate triffid genes at a very low concentration. Where did that come from? I have no idea. This flax was grown from seed I saved last year. That previous crop was grown from seed purchased from a neighbour and his was originally bought as certified seed so one would assume it was gmo free. And what is the problem with gmo flax anyway? Nobody has ever come out and showed conclusive evidence that gm flax is a health hazard at any level.
Flax prices have lost ground since this event . I was selling for over $11 per bushel last winter, now I would be very lucky to see $9 for the same flax. This is not what we needed after the horrendous task of harvesting the crop. Flax is difficult at the best of times but this year (09) it was nearly impossible for me. Actually it was impossible and I was only able to get a small percentage through my combine and had to hire a neighbour to do the rest.
My suspicions are that this triffid nonsense is just an artificial trade barrier in an effort to drop the price of our flax. We are seeing similar shenanigans from the Chinese who suddenly have decided they will not buy any of our canola that contains blackleg. Now blackleg is a fairly common disease of canola that has no effect on the seed or to human health and I would guess that almost every field of canola would have at least a small percentage of blackleg in it.
Now we have the rest of the winter to think about what to grow in the spring. A link to what other farmers are talking about.........
http://www.agri-ville.com/cgi-bin/forums/viewThread.cgi?1263569169