Weather woes delay planting

Well, it is officially the latest I have ever been without seed in the ground at the Research Station. Things like cereals, canola, flax, peas see yields losses each day after May 15. Things like soybeans and corn are planted a bit later here to avoid frost so there may be hope for some of our cropping plans. Like last years drought, this is extremely hard on our producers. This affects people’s livelihoods. Most of these crops and inputs have been pre-paid and them sitting there waiting to move is frustrating to say the least. I realize people get tired of farmers complaining about the weather – but we don’t get paid until we sell our crops whether that is calves, barley, wheat – you name it. I feel bad complaining about the Research Station because I do get paid but the best part of our job here is working on the land and under the sunshine. I am still hearing long-term weather is predicting plenty of heat and dry conditions. If that is true, we are going into that with better water conditions anyway.

For those of you that might not be on my email list – I am gathering a list of names of people that have sheep to be sheared. Our sheep shearer will be in the area early June and if you’d like to have any sheep shorn, please let me know ASAP so we can organize the day for him.

I may be creating my own problems because I tend to do that, but I am worried about my one bull group. I would like to see a bit more action. I think because things are not going great that I keep envisioning a bunch of cows not bred. Most action happens through the hours that you are not around but… I will keep a close eye. It is not super helpful that we all try to move our cattle out of the mud, so it isn’t as easy as just looking out the window.

If you’d like to see the drone planting demonstration if looks like that is going to happen on May 26. I don’t have a time yet, but we have a company coming to the Station to demonstrate planting with a drone. I told the fellow the other day that there is a good change he will beat us all planting. Stay tuned and as I have more details, I will share with you.

We even postponed our Work-Bee at the Sales Barn this past weekend due to the wet conditions. We have rebooked it for May 28. We are planning on organizing all our extra panels etc. for our Auction that we are hosting on June 25. Mark those dates down! We should have a great selection of items to sell.

We are planning on getting back on schedule with our Rainy River District Regional Abattoir Inc. Annual Meetings. Over time they kept getting later and later but the current board wanted to get back on track. The AGM is booked for June 9 at the Chapple Rec. Centre. We need some new people to step to the plate. The abattoir is very valuable to the entire District, and we need some new volunteers to sit on the board. Things have improved so please consider giving some time to this.