Spraying Oats June 26

Finally got unhitched from the sprayer yesterday. Crop spraying season used to be a lot shorter it seems. Now, with pre or post seeding burn off, chem fallow, roundup ready canola, then in crop weed control, the sprayer is one of the busiest machines on the farm. And thats not even considering fungicides or insecticides like a lot of farmers us. I don't get into that stuff myself.

Crops are actually looking pretty good now that it finally rained for the first time since winter ended.  A few of the reclaimed low spots that I was able to seed are now flooded and likely won't produce much but that is the chance we take on those areas.

Wind And Rain

Its been a challenge, as usual, trying to get crops sprayed on time. Well no chance of being on time any more but I'll get them done eventually. Wind blows like a hurricane some days so nobody in their right mind will run a sprayer and blow herbicide all across the country (and his neighbour's crops). We finally got a decent day yesterday and I got all of two tanks of heribiced sprayed on wheat. Might have made three but a front tractor tire developed a bulge that threatened to leave me stranded if I kept driving. Thanks to my "pit crew" we had a new tire on and rolling again about 3 hours later. Not easy changing a big 11.00x16 tire on the farm without benefit of proper tire changing equipment but we got it done.
Today, clouds and threatening rain means the sprayer gets a rest and I get to catch up on a few jobs that I haven't had time to do. As usual time flies when you are trying to do too much. I did take time to take this photo of a nice sunset last night. Actually I didn't take any time as I kept rolling right along as I took the picture.. Talk about distracted driving!

Wheat looks good from the ground but a drone view from last Saturday makes it look a bit patchy.

Spray? No Way!

So far I've had one good crop spraying day this week (yesterday). Other days were threatening rain or too windy. I did work monday evening, when the wind dropped but I had to run right up past sundown to finish the field. The crop was getting so wet even at sundown that the tires were building up mud so hopefully the herbicide will work on the weeds. Same thing next morning when I got out early to empty out the last ten acres worth in the tank. Crop wetter than if it had rained so we will see how that works. The rest of the day was near perfect conditions and I finished the wheat.
Roundup ready canola is more than ready for it's second spraying as soon as conditions permit. The plants are getting so big I will do some damage with the tires just by pulling the sprayer but there is so much volunteer flax coming up that I really need to get it done. Or else it will be a "dual crop" of canola and flax.
I watched this one working in the wind this morning before it got up to ridiculous speeds. They say wind gusts hit over 70 km per hour by mid day.
Hoping for a quiet morning tomorrow.

Crop Spraying

Its going well, until it isn't. We had one really good day this week. Meaning no wind, not too hot or raining. Otherwise it is usually too windy and I end up spraying herbicide when it is less than ideal and blowing expensive poison all across the countryside.
Crops doing pretty good with only moderate weed competition.

Looks like I was a little too cheap with the roundup on the chem fallow. Everything except the twitch grass is dying as intended but the grass is hanging on. Should have thrown another jug in the tank.
Daytime highs hitting into the 80s a few days. Been a while since the last rain. Days? Maybe a week. No worries yet. Plenty of mosquitos to make life miserable when there is no wind to keep them away. Tent caterpillars are starting to thin out. As are the leaves on the trees due to the caterpillars.
Still trapping rats in the chop bin but no luck with raccoons. Turns out I had the safety latch on the trap for a month and wondered why it never caught anything. I really need to pay more attention to details.
Hilled my first row of potatoes already and they are looking great. Everything is a bit early this year so I should probably be hitching onto the haybine any day now.

Crop Circles

Actually it was a large crop rectangle that I discovered in my latest oat field this morning. I had not looked at the field since I seeded it in early June. Now out on the trike inspecting to see if it was time to spray for weeds I was shocked to find a large rectangle of almost bare ground. The air seeder had gone over the field and for some reason this patch of ground had no seed applied. Operator half asleep maybe and forgot to hit the switch for the seed auger? Can't blame it on aliens I guess.
If it was just one pass I would have ignored it but this looked to be about ten percent of the whole field and located on the high ground that was not flooded so bad by last week's four inch downpour. I couldn't leave it bare all summer. Lucky I had not emptied the oats out of the truck box yet or disconnected the air tank from the seeder and parked it in the shed. In short order I had the Magnum hitched up to the air seeder, augered a few bushels of oats into the tank and headed out to seed. This field has really suffered from too much rain. Every depression contains either water or mud and dying plants. Anyway, the crop in the rest of the field was big enough (as were the weeds) to spray. With another inch of rain possible for tomorrow I needed that job done today. And so it was done by sundown. Leaving more ruts with the sprayer and flattening more crop into the muddy ground, I wondered if I might have been better off just leaving the weeds to grow.

Early Potatoes

Hope I spelled that right , potatoe or potato, whatever. Back when I planted them in the first week of April I wondered if it was a waste of time or energy as it is a good month ahead of usual garden planting time here. As of yesterday they are looking good and blooming already. They will be the earliest I can ever remember. I was lucky to escape the frosts that hit around the area a  while back.
In other news, same old complaint, the weather is holding me back from what I want and need to do. Another 190 acres of wheat need spraying for weeds and the ground is probably just about dry enough to do it. Unfortunately the wind is blowing and clouds are rolling in with rain in the near forecast so I guess not today. No point loading up the sprayer with expensive herbicide that degrades pretty quickly if left sitting in the tank. Its a nine mile drive to the field and at 14 mph the weather can change before I even get into the field. Leaving me the option to spray in the wind or imminent rainfall. Neither are a good option.
I was lucky to get the canola crop sprayed a week ago and then a wheat field on the weekend.

Weed Spraying Drives Me Crazy

                 Oats coming up nice and even.
Its not really news but spraying crops for weeds is a stressful time due to the weather affecting every move I make. If it is too windy, too hot, too wet, too dry, too many threatening clouds in the sky, threat of frost, etc., the list
goes on. It is a rare thing to get a windless day in Sask.It is equally
rare to get a dry quiet day but this past week we had two such days.

On one of them I was ready to go. 800 gallons of water and three jugs
of cheap herbicide (thank you Monsanto) and I am off to the fields.

By mid day the wind was pushing the limits of my comfort zone but I had
good buffer zones between neighbour's fields so went ahead.

12 hours and 38 miles of road driving later I had sprayed 200 acres of
canola. At 14 mph I spent about 3 hours on the road between farms and
that is enough time to spray another 80 acres.

The temperature was pushing the 80 degree mark and wouldn't you know, that was when the a.c. compressor failed to cut in so it got pretty warm
in the tractor cab. Good thing I brought lots of water to drink. Later
that evening the ac worked fine.

Now a couple of days of wheat field spraying await me.The wheat is about the right stage , unfortunately today is unsettled and threatening rain with
gusty winds so its a no-go I think. If conditions are not right by 6:00 pm,
forget it. It takes a good half hour to get to the field and then 3 hours
to spray out the tank which would put me into darkness. GPS is a big help but it won't show me where the sloughs and bushes are. Sprayer booms are no match for a good solid poplar tree and I don't need any more repair time spent on the sprayer.

Looking at the long range forecast I see one good day out of the next seven
so it looks like the weeds will get to grow bigger while I sit and wait.

I could go out and cut grass but no, its too wet, raining now. Maybe clean
the last of the seed oats from the bin onto the truck, but no, sure as anything
a rain shower would come up in the middle of that job.
Finish changing those cultivator shovels while kneeling on the wet ground. Yes that sounds like a plan.

Tractor and sprayer parked, waiting.