This year's update on growing year 2018...
Late spring melt April 20th, following week started getting machinery ready to roll, May 1st - 4th putting out granular chemical for oilseeds & pulse crops... few months earlier bought a mid 90's StrawMaster heavy harrow with granular chemical applicator... using this implement, the harrow tickles the ground for light soil disturbance to get good ground contact with the chemical to make it more effective & the added benefit to get weed seeds actively growing so when I come back in a few weeks with the pre seed burnoff, the weeds were a plentiful & a few inches tall... smoked them! And I've never had granular chemical work so well before, my peas were so clean that I never sprayed in-crop, saving me about $30/ac in costs.
Started seeding May 5th, working by myself, as I have 8 out of the last 10 yrs, got it done in good time with little delay or effort. Finished May 22nd.
Got a good soaker rain May 24th, 7/10 of an inch, that got everything germinated & off to a great start.
Next 3 weeks, started to get into in-crop spraying of grasses & broadleaf control, got rather hot & windy and crop starting to suffer from lack of rain. June 19th got a 6 tenth rain & from there on till end of July was avging close to an inch a week. Crops were looking FABULOUS
August 7 - 11th got a wicked heat wave in the low 40's... b/c of the lack of moisture in early June stalling plant growth, then good moisture throughout July, peas & brown mustard flowered off late July, and when that extreme heat hit the crops were just beginning to set seed.
From the date peas & mustard flowered off, I should've started peas last few days of August & mustard would've been ready about Sept 10th... but b/c of the rogue heat wave everything came in two weeks sooner
The pics above are of brown mustard, and just like the peas, the crop mass was huge & looked like a bumper crop... but that 5 day heat wave was just as deadly as a killing frost at the absolute worst time in the plant cycle and yields were half what they should of been... that four days of 40 heat cost me about $400 000 is lost revenue
The durum wasn't hurt quite as badly, as it's cycle is much different than the specialty crops & it flowered off much sooner. But the side of the farm it was planted on, I've been dealing with some group 1 chemical resistance weed issues & the other groups I used in my durum crop weren't 100% effective in every field. One field didn't make 20bu/ac, majority of the acres were 35-40bu/ac (very good) & about 300ac that I had sunk my airdrill May 2017 seeding, I chem fall last yr & this yr went close to 60bu/ac
Occasional low spot would spike the yield for a few seconds (I've never programmed the yield monitor or moisture, yield reading is about 30% high)
Markets currently for durum are really poor, elevators are offering $6.25/bu for any grade - any protein
WTF?!
The one shining light of this yr, I got a full time guy 2nd day into harvest, turned into the best hand I've ever had, I've never had anyone WORK WITH ME so well before
Despite a couple of day long breakdowns, we mowed off a rather large crop (material wise) in record time! We finished Tuesday Sept 11, started raining next day & every day since with no sunshine in sight the next 5 days
I got about a truck load of green spots to combine yet, but everything else is in the bin. If I had gone it alone again this yr with my after 4pm partime drivers, I'd probably still have 1000ac out there yet turning to shyt right now... not that it matters right now anyway with how durum is current being traded, but just saying...
I gave this new guy the same flat salary I paid the last guy & b/c we did the harvest so quickly & efficiently with zero mistakes & zero adverse weather delays, his hourly wage works out close to $100/hr... the last guy was about $45-50/hr & aside from his wage, b/c of his BS not doing his job or not showing up costed me over $100 000 in losses in 2016 that were a direct result of his poor job performance.
New guy will be back in the Spring.
Despite the huge wage I'm paying him, he's gonna make me money.
Saturday mornings is crib at the vet clinic, Doc's quote of the day, as it pours rain outside & crackling thunder, "the Devil's hauling rocks"
