On the farming front, there has been a good run of harvest weather with everyone getting done, almost done and some still with a little way to go. I hope everybody is okay with what they got for yield since the “shower lotteries” were widely scattered this year. I understand over by Outlook, Saskatchewan there is a farmer who never took his combine out of the shed, and this is his third year for drought!  

            “To swath or not to swath?” debate is on going with some of the straight cutter guys finding green canola in their fields that have been sprayed and had to stop and go to a different field, hoping to not find any green. The move alone can waste a lot of valuable time being on the road not in the field!

            I am a firm believer in swathing. It is not all peaches and cream!!! I have had my canola swathes blow around. It is really terrible because as soon as the swath moves you lose 25% or more of your yield! Then there is the exasperating waste of time chasing “strays” as you run around with the combine trying to pick them up. There are things you can do like swath on an angle northwest – south east. I always swather easty-westy and I had rollers under the swathers to push the swath down. I was confident that if it was swathed when it was ready, it was all ready, when the combines rolled in there was no green and you could go!

            My perception of a large field with a lot left to harvest is wiped out by guys with 2, or 3, 4 or more combines working together. Bradley is running seven. I heard on Saturday he and the crew were in my hills so on Sunday my wife and I went for a drive to hopefully get some awesome harvest photos. He was gone, combines gone, trucks gone, everything was gone! I guess I will have to wait until next year!!

            I think the debate about swathing wheat is over as the spraying and straight cutting system looks like it is working well. I wish I could have used that system when I was farming. In my years of farming, I would lots of times get it swathed only to have a downpour pushing the swath down! Then the geese would arrive by the thousands! To some people this might look “cool” and make a great photo op but those geese can certainly make a big mess in a short amount of time, walking on the swaths, happily eating as they leisurely move along and leaving their crap on the grain! My experience with straight cutting wheat without roundup was it was  October, the wheat was tough or damp and was feed wheat. Nobody “ever” made any money growing feed wheat!!

    Joke for the week:

       A fifty year old woman goes to the doctor for a checkup. When she got home the husband asked, “What did the doctor say?” She replied, “The doctor told me my breasts were the same as a twenty year old”. The husband said, “What did he say about your fifty year old big fat ass?” The wife said,  “Sorry, but he didn’t mention you.”

Victor Hult