Thanks for tuning in to The Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection! On today’s Thursday edition of RealAg Radio, your host, Lyndsey Smith, is joined by:
00:00 - Coming up...
01:43 - Ryan McCarron of Antigonish, N.S.
13:48 - Tyler Lester of Bloomfield, Ont.
24:36 - Keith Fournier of Lone Rock, Sask.
36:27 - Jesse Meyer of Woking, Alta.
47:53 - Corteva Agronomist, Rhett Duke, based in Saskatchewan
Thoughts on something we talked about on the show? Connect with host Lyndsey Smith at [email protected], on social media by using the hashtag #RealAgRadio, drop a DM, or give us a shout or text on the response line, 1-855-776-6147.
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Cool nights, hot wheat markets, and plenty of agronomy curveballs — Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson is back with another packed episode of the Wheat Pete’s Word podcast! From drought-stricken U.S. wheat crops driving market rallies, to nitrogen application headaches in Ontario wheat, Pete covers a wide range of timely crop management issues. There’s also discussion...
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It is a soggy one for so many of the farmers. On this week's Farmer Rapid Fire. We've got farmers getting chased out of the field by rain, other farmers not able to roll and others that maybe actually will welcome a bit of a break to get going on some of the projects, some of the things they need to get done, of course, before they head to the next crop. That's right. Every Thursday on Re like Radio, we visit different farmers from across Canada and find out what's happening on their farms. Brought to you of course by Corteva Crop. So let's cheque it out and get to the RealAg Radio episode of the Farmer Rapid fire for Thursday, May 14. It's challenging work, but last year especially we had a serious issue really cost us.
Wheat growers across Canada have a major problem.
Once you have the risk of having again increases exponentially.
Add a little bit of can destroy everything you worked for.
It's time for RealAg radio on rural radio channel 147 on siriusxm. Real Egg Radio and RealLgCulture.com is your home for insight and analys of the issues that are impacting your farm business. Let's get real and get connected with RealAg Radio.
Hello and welcome to RealAg Radio right here on rural radio, channel147, SiriusXM. It is Thursday, May 14, and that means it's time for the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection. On today's show, we're going to start in Nova Scotia. We're going to hop to Ontario, jump to Saskatchewan, end up in Alberta and then go right on back to Saskatchewan and talk to Rhett Duke from Corteva. So without further ado, let's hop to the Farmer Rapid Fire. All right, we head now to near Anagonish, Nova Scotia. I still can't say right, but I keep trying. I got Ryan McCarran on the line. Ryan, how are you doing?
Not bad.
That's pretty good.
That's pretty good pronunciation.
Okay.
I keep, you know, I try. It's pretty close. I. I need to spend some time there and then give it a whirl.
Yeah, yeah. We got like a half Cape Breton accent, half mainland. It's kind of just teaser, silent and optional.
I like it a lot. Okay. What's keeping you busy? It is. We are, I guess we're going to call it mid May. Ish. It feels like early May. What kind of spring are you getting?
It was dry at the start and
we got like a lot of Manure spread. We took that opportunity to get a lot of our fields applied for corn later on. Then everything's kind of just ground to a halt somewhat.
Just.
Yeah, just kind of waiting for things to dry up again. Got some fields that need to be a pre plant burned down and then pretty much ready to go. Just when the weather kind of cooperates and gives us that next window, we'll start putting corn in the ground and. And then, yeah, we're just. We calve. We start to calve this time of year, so it kind of all kind of happens. But usually if the weather's good, the cabin's good and the weather's shit, you got lots of time to deal with the calves. So.
That's true, yes. Now, do you have, do you have decent infrastructure that if the weather is really terrible, you can, you can move some of them inside or are you out on grass?
Usually it's out on grass like they. Usually we start like this time of year, our pastures aren't ready, so they're still in. Around like the home yard, but there's not really enough space. If we have a few calves, we can get a few of them into some pens. But we don't really have a vast quantity, so our main bulk will come towards the end of May. So usually by that time you're kind of clear, you're in some warm rains, you might get the odd cold, cold front move in, but usually they get a lot more rare than early May or late April.
Yeah, that's true. It usually, I guess, is what we're going with. It's a little chilly for some areas. I know here in Ontario definitely fighting that this week, but got to go with the averages and on average it's, it's at times not bad by now. So that's all right. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yep.
No, that's right.
Yeah. Now, corn, corn going in soon. Is that still on time? Do you feel a little behind the eight ball or are you feeling good?
Well, if this week was good, I'd be ahead of the eight ball. And then this week we're still kind of like not. We're not really there, but it seems like you get a week of rain and Nova Scotia, you don't know if it's going to be like a couple days or if it's going to be a whole month. So it's like when they start getting a rain, it's middle of May, like the anxiety just seems to throw up through the roof. Yeah, we like. We have a horse breeding programme too, so we're like. We're breeding mares or foaling mares out and like all that's kind of happening at the same time. So it's kind of one of those high. It's a good high stress time. We like to put ourselves under a lot of pressure all at once and try to make everything execute. So luckily I was able to go to the airport and pick up some semen for the wife yesterday. She was up pretty late. Marrow. So I take the opportunities to kind of just. That's a kind of a half getaway. So I don't have to think about not planting for the day.
I looked.
I look for the positives there.
I. I was gonna say like the complete absence of stress isn't good. Too much stress also not good. But somewhere in between there is that like motivational stress of making things run tickety.
Boo.
What. What breed of horses are you are out?
Primarily quarter horses. Like cow horse. Bred like cutting lines and.
Yep.
And ran cow horse style.
Okay. I didn't know.
Main thing that we're moving into.
Okay. I was gonna say I didn't know that existed on the east coast. Is that relatively new now?
There's always been kind of a small cow horse and reigning horse market down here. Like there's quite a few people throughout. Throughout the Maritimes that have it. And it's getting the more cow horse like rain cow horse and cutting stuff is starting to get more popular. Some people that we know with, they'll travel to Quebec and show and then they have their own local shows down here. So it's becoming something that's quite big. Like we bring a guy up from Texas that does clinics in the summer and we partner with another stable and kind of host that at his stable. We bring him up and we supply the cattle for it. So it's kind of one of these things. It's. We enjoy it and then it's kind of a future market for us to kind of have a little bit of diversification in a different way.
And it's not racehorses where you're aiming for January 1st birthdays in the dead of winter.
No, no. We're pretty much everything's falling like right now kind of deal again.
Not.
Not the racehorse deal at all.
Now on the cattle side, cattle markets, of course, very strong.
Yeah.
How is that. What's your outlook for this year? Does that mean you're going to hold back more heifers or have. Have you changed your plans at all? Are you just enjoying actually having some profit margin?
Well, we've been direct marketing for the last, I don't even know how long, eight years maybe now. And it's been growing like we are keeping back heifers, like in excess of our replacement. We're also starting to buy in feeders now because our market's kind of growing for this domestic market, our local market, to the point where like we just, we're just trying to keep the demand and the growth going because it's kind of one of these. We get to set our profit margin on that one. So we are trying to keep like, you know, customers, when they want something, they want it and if you don't have it, then they'll go look for somewhere else. So we're trying really hard to keep up with what the customers want, which adds another layer of stress. We're kind of in that in between, like, should we hire someone to help us manage this full time versus we don't really have enough. Like we're in that kind of a swamp where you're in between, like not quite big enough and still kind of small.
So it's, it's.
Yeah, it's fun.
Fun. That's a good way to put it. That's the positive way to look at it. Yeah, definitely. I'd say that is the balance, right, of when it. When a customer asks for something, you want to say yes, not no. But that creates a whole other cascading effect of making sure you've got all that product somewhere in. In the product line. Always a challenge now. Fascinating. Well, it sounds like you're incredibly busy, so thank you for saying yes to being on the show this week. My question this week for everyone is kind of goes in line with a few of the things we're working on over at Real Agriculture when it comes to information. So not just news, but like information, you know, researching things, those sorts of things. What would you say are your trusted sources of information?
Trusted sources of information? I don't even know. I guess like I'll read, I'll try to read. Like I'll try to read some online newspapers. Then it just like in what context? Just for information in general or just like trying to find a new piece of equipment or.
Yeah. So like, like news wise. Well, let's maybe let's stick with news just to start in that, you know, we certainly. Many people would say that they used to get a lot of news through but don't necessarily now because there's been all those. There's been the new rules in place where you can't. Some people still have local news, but many don't. So where would you go to get sort of news and that sort of information?
I would look on. Well, I have a couple, like, new subscriptions, like the National Post and stuff. Try to get something that's like, maybe not as mainstream as what you get from, like, CTV and cbc, because that usually kind of pushes one thing you don't really try to get. I guess I'll have a couple online news descriptions and then I'll just maybe Google search something else, like, try to find out. I mean, I'll just kind of cruise. I guess online search will be the biggest thing. Maybe some of the free news sites, like what you'll get from a variety of sources. And then sometimes I just won't look at it at all at the time of year right now I look at it, I'm like, you keep focusing on all that stuff and then it's just gonna. Sometimes it'll just beat you down. There's nothing you can do about it anyway. But you keep looking at why, how much fertiliser prices are going to the roof, and you can complain about that all day. It's not going to change the year that we still have to go get a crop in the ground and do that stuff there. So at some point, like, I'll. I'll stay pretty current with news, but then if, like, say, if they have a majority government. Well, like, if. I'm not going to, like, I like politics, so I'm not going to follow politics too much once people got four years in power. So I'm like, well, nothing's really going to change for the next little bit. And there's nothing really I can do about it for the next four years. So I might as well not beat my head against a wall. I may as well just go and get back to the work in the field, because that's not going to change nothing.
Mm, that's. That's. That's a neat observation of like, yeah, when everything was. When it was a minority and there's this happening, that happening. There's stuff to keep track of. But you're right, once there's a majority, it's sort of, well, this is what we got for the next little while.
Yeah. So you kind of locked in. So I just. I tend to, for my own sanity, not to do anything because I find now I also get it from my father. We still work together every day. He's 70. He gets his media from like, the traditional news. So he'll come in and be like,
did you see what's going on? I'm like, don't.
I just.
Don't.
You're rage baiting me. Stop.
Stop. I will say that that happened in our house just this last week. I mentioned something about the hantavirus ship to my partner and he was like, the what? And I was like, oh, you haven't been online lately and that's a tell that somebody isn't maybe watching stuff. Okay. All right, Ryan, we're gonna leave it there. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Product. Really appreciate it. I know it's a busy time, so cheers.
No problem. Thank you.
Alright. Big thanks to Ryan for making time for us here on the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection. We're going to take a quick break and we are going to head to Ontario next here on the Farmer Rapid Fire.
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Welcome back to Relag Radio here on Rural Radio Channel 147, SiriusXM. I am your host, Lindsey Smith. It is Thursday. It is the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection. We head now to near Bloomfield, Ontario. I've got Tyler Lester on the line Tyler, are you keeping dry?
We are not dry, Lindsey.
Oh, no. How wet are you?
The puddles are starting to show back up, and the forecast is suggesting they're
going to get a lot bigger.
Oh, dear.
We're looking at 2 inches of rain over the next 10 days.
Okay, well, 2 inches is not as bad as, say, 6, but 10 days of rain keeps you out of the field for quite some time.
Exactly. We're behind in planting. We haven't planted any soybeans, and we've only just started planting corn. We've done enough acreage to make sure the corn planter actually works.
Right.
And that's it.
And that's it. Now, is this. I mean, Bloomfield is a beautiful place. It feels to me like you should have perfect weather all the time. Is. Is it rare to be this wet in May, or is this more average
in my lifetime? I would suggest that we're on the
wet side for this time of year.
Yeah. So it is more wet than you would maybe expect in an average year.
Oh, yes.
Yeah. Okay, now, so some acres of corn in. No beans yet. Do you have anything else in rotation? Any wheat in rotation or anything like that?
The wheat's in the ground. We got the fertiliser on, the herbicide is on, and the wheat looks fantastic.
Okay.
Cold, wet May for wheat and hay, the wheat looks great.
Well, so this is an interesting point in that. So we are, I mean, as the crow flies, we're several hours from each other of a drive, but we're having cold, wet weather as well. But my hay fields look fantastic and the grass looks great. So, I mean, wheat will be happy. It's the corn and beans we're worried about at this point.
I'm not to the point terribly yet,
but when the weather is right, we're going to have to go.
And when I know that we, you know, after May 20th, somewhere around there, on average, you start to really, you know, get a little nervous about on the corn side, what you might lose and those sorts of things. What is your own sort of calendar date of either switching out of corn, switching hybrids? What. What would be really late for you where you'd start to maybe make some management shifts?
May 20, we're going to start to cut days off of our heat units. And the last day of May, we're going to start to think about switching to beans.
Okay. So May. May is the. May is the cutoff. After that, it's. It's time to try something else. Yeah. And we. Okay. And we still have time. So we're not. We're not there yet. Two inches of rain is, you know, or 10 days of rain during the planting window. Not ideal. What are your fields like? How quickly can you move on them once you've got that kind of moisture?
I don't have a lot of tile on any of my land. There's not really anywhere for the water to go to. Tile 2. And in Prince Edward county, there's a lot of people who question. The common statement in our county is the bottom is close to the top, so there's not a lot of depth in places. And there are odd rock shelves in the subsoil that hold water, that restrict where tile can go.
So.
Every mix of soil on every hundred acres. So from sand to heavy clay all the way across, everything that's quite common
in Prince Edward County.
So fields will be able to be planted and parts of fields will not
be able to be planted quickly.
That's what we're looking at now is making big fields small right now.
You also, of course, as you mentioned, Prince Edward county is a hotspot for tourism and summer getaways and these sorts of things. I think we've talked about this before, about just how busy things can get in your area when you're trying to get from field to field, et cetera. So my mind goes to, of course, the later into May we get, the busier the roads must get. How do you manage that? When it starts to get even busier and time is tight,
it's a difficult thing to manage. We've been on the road with farm equipment one day so far this year, already had three close calls, all with left hand turns, all with people in a hurry to get by slow moving farm equipment. And I don't see it getting better with the season getting later and closer to summer holidays and the busier tourist season.
So
we have a daily meeting starts. My. My son works with us, couple of neighbours help during the busy season and there's a morning meeting with all of us. Just take your time. Eyes open, eyes in the back of your head, turn them on and everybody else is going to make mistakes. Just make sure you're not making them too.
Mm. It is a. I mean, I think it's a good reminder for everyone when you're, you know, using roads to exactly that be aware. But I think for certain situations like yours, you know, you've got people obviously who are residents there who maybe are more used to it, but you also deal with a lot of people that, you know, are just coming and going and Maybe don't really recognise even what a. What a farm vehicle might actually be or be capable of. So I can only imagine the extra stress that it puts on your team and moving between fields, et cetera, as a county, is this like, how does, how does your county sort of deal with this? Like, do you have awareness campaigns? Do you have. Do you feel like you've got any support in trying to communicate with the people that, you know, come to visit Prince Edward County?
Oh, yes, the county has road signage up. This is what a slow moving vehicle sign is and this is what it means. There's a number of signs like that around the county. And we have a small radio station here that always plays, you know, it's farming season, you're here for vacation, slow down, be aware, farm equipment needs extra time and space. Your understanding is appreciated.
Kind of thing that is helpful. Now that actually also plays into my question of the week. My question this week is where do you, where do you get trusted news, trusted information from? What are your sources of trusted information?
Oh, that's a. That's a loaded question, Lindsay.
It is, it's.
It's becoming harder and harder to find trusted information and on social media is being taken over by AI and it's becoming more and more difficult to take out the AI isms in. I don't have a real solid trusted source.
Right.
With a. Taking everything
I
Getting on the phone and calling people directly.
I guess that is a great answer. Directly from. What do they call that? The horse's mouth?
Direct to the horn mouth.
Exactly. There you go. Okay. I like it. Okay, Tyler, we're going to leave it there. I really do hope the forecast is wrong. Sometimes they are. And that you get a break in the weather and get rolling. Be safe out there. Thank you so much for making time here on the Farmer Rapid Fire.
Thanks, Lindsey.
All right, have a great day. Thanks so much, Tyler. Take care.
All right, YouTube.
Thanks.
And we will be back with more of the Farmer Rapid Fire, brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection right after this.
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Welcome back to RealAg Radio here on rural radio channel 147, SiriusXM. It is Thursday and that means it is the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection. No one protects your crops like Corteva. Cheque out our full acre solutions for cereals and canola at Corteva Ca. We hop now to near Lone Rock, Saskatchewan and I've got Keith Fournier on the line. Keith, how are you doing?
Yeah, I'm doing great. Just seeding some wheat here and trying to make up for some lost time for a little bit late start, but everything seems to be going well.
All right, well, so what area of Saskatchewan are you in and why are you late? Because we've seen reports of roads flooded out, fields flooded out, and then we've got all the way to the other extreme, of course, areas that are super dry. So where do you land in that equation?
Well, we're probably somewhere about the middle. I mean I do hear that over in the northeast part of the province, they haven't started yet. So we've been going for about a week. We got going on May 7th and normal would be like a May 1st, May 2nd start. So we were about a week late starting. But yeah, not as bad as what some of the parts of the province are good.
Okay, so a little behind now, was that because it was too cold or because it was too wet or both?
Well, I would say probably just the cold and we were getting ready to fire up and then a dump of snow come and that put us back probably another four or Five days by time that melted off and dried up and warmed up enough to get going. And so otherwise we'd have been pretty much on schedule. So moisture wise, we're probably fairly normal. I mean, we have some potholes, we're having to drive around, but at least we don't have the really wet conditions.
Definitely seeing for some farmers, you know, full fields that are still really wet or, you know, had water sitting on them not that long ago. And of course reports of washouts and many areas. So it doesn't sound too bad. Now, you said you're getting some wheat in the ground. What all is in the lineup for this year?
Well, we've got. The peas are already in the ground. The wheat, we're probably two thirds done. The wheat now. And then after that we've got canola to go.
Okay, now that. So really only three crops. That sounds very simple.
Yeah. You know, we're far enough in the northern part of the province here that we're limited for rotations. And I mean, we do could have some options like flax would fit into the rotation. And I know some people in the area have tried fava beans, although they've backed off those a little bit. They just haven't done as well as what they had thought. But yeah, we're far enough north. We are restricted as to the types of crops that we could grow here.
Three is still pretty good. You got, you know, you at least got some broadleaf Anna cereal. That's okay.
Yeah, you know, and it's nice to be able to throw some pulses in there, you know, just to have something else. So the peas have really done well for us. I mean, we've got some of the lower areas that we get phantomyces or fusarium root rots in and we have to be careful of how often we put those into the rotation. But they do make a nice fit in where we could put them in.
And so how many, how many years roughly do you aim for then for peas? If you've got a field that you are concerned about Aphenomyces, is four years enough? Is it five? Is it eight? I've heard ten in some places.
Well, we've got depending on the field, but we try for a six year rotation on the fields that are fairly well drained, the fields that stay wet for longer, I mean, we have given them 10 years and we still end up with some of the root rots. And so, I don't know, we just more or less play by area and by how well the field is drained and that's how we all set our rotation on it.
Yeah, that makes sense. Now, having pulses in rotation, of course, also helps with the fertiliser bill, which is nice, especially now. How are you, how are you feeling about all this uncertainty and volatility and run up in prices? How are you managing all that?
Well, we were, I guess we were
fortunate enough that we had our fertiliser sitting on the farm before the last big run up here. So we had it mostly in place in sort of that January time frame and the fuel we had mostly sitting there. So we've got a pretty good buffer for this year. It does worry me a little bit though, for next year. I mean, I've seen when prices jump up, you know, they, they do take some time to come down and, and so, yeah, we still have the situation in the, in the world, which is meaning fairly volatile. So, yeah, some concern for next year's crop.
Yeah, I'd say you're not alone on that one. Right. I mean, so, because this is one of the things I think that we don't always talk maybe enough about. If, you know, if you had things sorted by like January, it means you made decisions far earlier in last year. Right. So, I mean, we are, yes, into May, but like you will have to make those 20, 27 decisions in the coming months when things are going to be incredibly volatile.
Yeah, I mean, we had, we had left our fertiliser into January to purchase for this year because we were hoping to come down and it wasn't moving down any. But normal year, we'd probably be looking at that October, November to fill it. So when you're, when you're looking at that, I mean, that's not very many months away. And you know, maybe it's concern over something that seems a long ways down the road, but it's just some planning we just look at having to do for next year's crop. You know, it just seems funny we're just putting in this year and you're already, you know, thinking of logistics for another whole year down the road. But I mean, that's just the, the nature of the business.
Yeah. When, when things are sort of all over the place right now, that certainly seems like looking ahead is prudent, but it also means it's not necessarily any easier to make those, those calls based on what's all going on. That's for sure.
Yeah, for sure.
Now that does play into my, my question of the week this week that I'm asking all the farmers is because this ties into, you know, where you get your information from and how you sort of make some of these decisions. Where do you get your, what do you consider a trusted source of information? So it could be news or you know, exactly that, you know, where prices are headed, those sorts of things. What do you consider a trusted source?
Yeah, you know, I guess I would look at, there's a few trusted sources, you know, the research firms, the researchers. I look at what they do as a trusted source and yeah, sure, you know, a few years down the road they might, they might adjust what they're saying but, but to me they're, they don't have anything to sell and they're fairly truthful up front. After that I, you know, most of
the,
I guess the government websites or the, or the government, the government people, you know, I would look at bad as being a fairly trusted source. The next step down would probably be the ones that are selling stuff and I know that they're, they'll push it with a, with a biasness for, for selling it. But a lot of them have a lot of knowledge. You can learn lots of it and probably at the bottom of it is social media. You know, you could. I learn a lot from social media and I, and I do follow it. Just have to be really careful and weed through all the, the misinformation on it.
Mm. How do you, I mean it's a really good point right in that, you know, social media is, it's, it's everywhere and, and you know, it's just such a part of our everyday or our culture really and there is so much information on it, but it also, sometimes I feel like there's so much on there and either you sort of have to question all of it or do you just accept all of it? How do you make the call on what you're going to take as fact? Do you follow up on things? I guess is a question to that of if you see it on social media, do you believe it right away?
Yeah, I look at social media as something that would tweak my interest and something I would look into some more because there are a lot of good ideas come around. But just to take that information off there as being fact that yeah, there's just, there's too high of a risk in that and so, so yeah, it's probably. It would be the one that I definitely would, would trust the least and anything, any ideas I get up on it, I'm going to investigate further just to see how much truth that's in it.
Yeah, absolutely. All Right. Okay. Let's leave it there. Keith, looking ahead, how does, how does the weather look for you, looking at the next four or five days?
Well, it's today looks like it should be really good after this. It looks like, I mean, we got the late start. We've been pushing hard to try and make up some time. We probably have made up two or three days just by some really long hours here. It looks like tomorrow and the next two or three days could be a time that we're going to catch up on some sleep and be able to get some things repaired up that we've sort of pushed off this last week while we were pushing hard. So some rain in the forecast and maybe even the odd little flurry.
What is it? It's the winter that won't end for parts of the prairies. So there you go. This is 11th or 12th. We've lost count. All right, Keith, we'll leave it there. Thanks so much for joining me here.
You're welcome. Yeah, thank you.
All right, we're going to leave it there. We're going to take a quick break. And next up, we're headed to Alberta. Right here on the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection.
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Welcome back to RealAg Radio here on rural radio channel 147, SiriusXM. In it is Thursday, May 14. It is the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection. And we go now to somewhere in the field near Woking, Alberta. I've got Jessie Meyer on the line. Jessie, how are you doing?
Hey, Lindsey. I'm doing good. Thank you for having me.
So it does sound like you are in some piece of equipment. What are you busy doing?
I am on the air seeder. I'm planting beach right now.
And is this the first crop going in? Is this the second? Where are you at in the entire process?
Yeah, we started last Friday, so I guess day number five, we're going. We started one drill on peas and got those finished and we seeded some oats. Just sort of how the, the dryness of the land works out. And so the wheat and. Or, sorry, the oats and the peas are in. And now we're seeding wheat right now. Yeah, we've got a few days of wheat left. And then. And then on to canola, hopefully on the weekend here.
Okay, so that was sort of my next question is what comes next? And so it be canola. And is this typically the order you would do it in or you mentioned with the, with the field readiness, et cetera, does the order sort of change based on fields and conditions, or is this usually how it goes?
It can change slightly, but we'll put our wheat and our peas going first for sure, and then wheat, and then we typically leave our canola for the end. But that's usually the plan. But yeah, sometimes you have wetter fields and drier fields, and so you have to change it up. But typically that's how we like to do it.
And do you have, like, where are you at? Do you. Do you figure in as far as, like on time, early, late for you on average? Where do you feel like you're at in the process? Right now?
I would say we're, we're not late, actually. Like, we're late compared to the last few years because the last two or three years we were going in April, which was really unusual. And so when there was still snow at the end of April, I think we were all getting concerned it was getting late. But we're actually back to more normal start time, which is around the 10th of May, which is when we usually start seeding. And in fact, we start on the 8th. So, yeah, we're right on time and it's going really well. We're going around too many wet spots or anything. So we're on a good pace right now.
Yeah, it does feel like we were a little spoiled for many having had early starts that it really does change what you think is early in that. Right. Like, if you look back at the last 10 years, you're probably on time.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we are. And I know we started a lot later than this and I feel for. I think there's a northeastern Saskatchewan. I'm seeing pictures of flooding and the water and we've had that too. And I just feel horrible for those farmers because we've had that too, where you basically can't get going for me. And it just adds a whole lot of pressure.
Yeah, it really does. Yeah.
Yeah. Because especially on the northern regions of the prairies, you're worried about frost on the other end now too, right?
Yeah, that's the part that I think at times for those maybe further south or for. For our friends down in the south in the US especially sometimes not realising just how short the season can be. If you look at your average first frost date, right, like if it's end of May and you're. You're not rolling yet, you're rapidly running out of season. And so, yeah, definitely gets very stressful now. So you got peas, oats, wheats, canola. How do peas do where you are? Is that a regular thing? Are they falling out of favour? Are they gaining favour?
So, yeah, peas have been growing here for as long as I remember. They've done really well. Again, it's like that early maturity, we're harvesting them in August. Nitrogen fixation, all of that are big, big benefits. And then for us, we feed it into winter wheat. So a lot of benefits for farmers. But yeah, I would say they probably dropped in acre. It varies, but there's challenges with fruit rots and the phantomyces here too. And so you can get really. And we've had it too, where you have a lot of variability on yield and they just can't handle this. Any adverse conditions. It seems like if you, you know, once you get those diseases.
Yeah.
So farmers have had to, including us, have had to really lengthen our rotation on peas going. You know, I'd like to be at least six years, at least between peas. So that really cuts back our acres on our farm. Yeah. And then the price of peas, of course, aren't. Aren't so good. So then many probably think, well, I'll save my land for when the price is good to put peas in.
Right.
Some of that thinking.
Yeah, yeah. Now you said, of course, yes, because the peas come off early. So have you had success with winter wheat or other fall seeded crops? Or is that only, you know, that once in a while if the peas go in?
No, it's a big part of our farm. Winter we. And some fall Rye, about 20% of our acres are seeded in the fall and we've done that for a long time and it really helps spread out our workload and more importantly, it spreads out our equipment so we can run less equipment on the same amount of acres. And we've had super success with it. But this year actually crop insurance was out today and we're going to have to reseed it, which is the first time we've had to reseed it in, I don't know, 15 years. It was just so dry last fall that when we planted in the beginning of September, it didn't get. It didn't germinate. And by the time it did, it didn't get to the growth stage it needed to before freeze up.
Fascinating. So that, yeah, like that usually when you hear that, you know, a crop needs to be taken out, it's that it, you know, it died sometime in the spring from, you know, a thaw and a freeze and a drown out and that sort of stuff. But so it just, it was so dry it didn't, it didn't make the winter because it wasn't large enough.
Yeah, that was a lot of.
Now I'm seeing some areas where we. I've seen sort of the carcasses or the. It did grow, but it's not. Doesn't seem to be regrowing yet. We're going to give it a little bit more time.
Yeah.
To see or we're going to assess that at the end of seeding if we have to reseed those. But yeah, a lot of it was just too dry. It didn't germinate. It needs to get to two to three leaf stage here to be really successful and to be a vigorous crop in the spring. We just didn't have, we did not have that.
Yep. That is, that's always the challenge with winter weed, is that you want to give it long enough to actually break dormancy and start growing. And if it's been cooler, that might take a while. But by the time you do a full assessment, it might be getting late. So it. I. That's a stressful one.
Yeah.
Usually by the time we're done, we get everything else seated, we'll go back to those fields and we can still make that call. Yeah, we won't make that call at the beginning of May, but middle or the third week of May, then we'll make that call.
Okay. Well, I hope it works out, but this is why we have insurance. Sometimes it doesn't. And I mean, you can still get something in there for this Year. So that works. Now, before I let you go, question of the week, asking everybody, what do you consider a trusted source for news and information? What do you can, how do you sort of make that call? What are some of the trusted sources of information?
You're gonna think I'm gonna suck up,
but this is not a leading question, Jesse. This is honest, honestly.
You guys are a huge source of information for me and real agriculture. You guys do such a great job offering perspective and information in a non biassed way and with an open mind. You guys are a big part of my information and something I can trust, which is really hard to do now. Right. With social media, you don't know what to believe anymore. I really don't use. I really quit using social media for any credible source of information. I mean, I still like seeing farming and how people are doing on the air drills and seeding and harvest and all that. But the rest, I, I don't really enjoy anymore.
I'm with you. Yeah, I like, I mean, it's called social media. It was supposed to be about social media. And so it's fine to see what people are doing, but the amount of just horse pucky that's on there, I don't know. That's. That's the nicest term I've got for it. Well, Jesse, we appreciate it very much and thank you for listening and reading and for saying yes to the Farmer Rapid Fire. We really appreciate all your time, especially for each of you today, knowing how busy it is out there. And we're glad you could join us, even if it is from the tractor. In fact, we like it that way. So thanks for that.
Thanks, Lindsey.
All right, we've got one more break to take here on Reelect Radio and the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Crop Protection. And I'll be back with Rhett Duke out of Saskatchewan right after this
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Welcome back to Realight Radio here on Rural Radio Channel 147, SiriusXM. I am your host, Lindsey Smith. It is Thursday, May 14th. It is the Farmer Rapid Fire brought to you by Corteva Car Protection. And joining me now, it's Rhett Duke out of Saskatchewan. Rhett, how you doing?
Doing pretty good. How are you doing, Lindsay?
I'm doing well. I think out of all of us in the lineup today, you're the only one getting sunshine and warmth.
Yeah, that's for sure. I think we're, we're hitting good 25 degrees down here in southeast Saskatchewan today and the winds are ripping so.
So not a lot of spraying happening is what you're saying.
Yeah, well, kind of to recap the start of the season down here, you know, seeding's obviously well underway, but it hasn't been smooth sailing for herbicide applications. You know, we've had some really, really windy conditions and on top of that, you know, unlike the previous few years, we kind of kicked the start of the season off being fairly cool, cool daytime highs and you know, hanging on to some freezing overnight temps kind of in almost into the second week in May here now. So you know, that combination can really tighten the window for getting pre seed herbicides applied effectively and safely.
Yeah. Now so let's talk about that because I think, you know, when a season is maybe more average and you sort of, you have time to do the burn off, then you get seeding and then you know, then you come back to your in crop. But when things are either maybe a bit backwards, maybe conditions aren't great, sometimes that, that that burn down gets either becomes a question or what should you do first? Or how do you sort of tackle this question of, you know, just how important it is but you know, when it still has to happen even if that window is tight.
Yeah, that's a great question, Lindsey, and something I'm, you know, questions I'm getting quite frequently at this time of the year. So you know, those slope conditions, they are cool conditions. Sorry they kind of slow emergence. And just like you said, the temptation for folks is just to focus on keeping that drill running. You know, I think the value of that pre seed herbicide application is Very well documented. We have a number of great sources here in western Canada. And ultimately, to save you a bunch of reading, it's very clear that that early season weed pressure, it's going to rob your crop of the most yield throughout the season. And, you know, it does that by competing for water, nutrients and sunlight. And you know, very simply, from an agronomy perspective, I think of that pre seed applic controlling roughly 50% of the weeds in the field and then you're going to take care of the other 50 with that in crop application. So, you know, we, we have a number of products here at Corteva, our serial pre seed products that are great for utilisation when that window is tight. Right. So even if weeds aren't actively emerged, products like Pre Pass, Flex Paradigm PRE and Corex 2, they have soil active extended control, which means they're going to continue to work even after application and they're going to control those wee as they emerge. So this is a huge benefit for staying on top of those weeds even when that spraying window is quite condensed.
Now that, of course, I mean, it sort of works the other way too in that, let's say it's been cool and things are maybe a bit slower. As you said, you've got some really warm temps that can change things really quickly. I mean, a few really warm days, if there's moisture there, I mean, you can see weeds emerging incredibly quick, quickly.
Oh, you're bang on, Lindsay. And that's exactly what we're seeing down in the southeast these days. We went from, you know, folks questioning whether we should be applying pre seeds to all of a sudden, oh, crap, we've got a bunch of weeds in the field. So, you know, I think it's really important to recognise as you shift to those really warm daytime temps, we get rid of those freezing overnight ones. Finally starting to feel like true spring. You know, those weeds are going to take off and we need to make sure we're staying on top of those fields because, you know, a field you put boots on the day before, it may look completely different the next day. And we want to make sure we're getting after that. In my geography right now, folks are starting to shift gears and thinking about seed and canola. So a product from Corteva here with Prospect, in addition with Glyphosate is an excellent option ahead of those canola crops, our unique Group 4 Active, that RLX technology, still only from Corteva Agriscience, it really complements glyphosate in targeting Some really hard to kill early season weeds. Stuff like cleavers, shepherd's purse and flixweed.
Now I'd be remiss if we didn't have a conversation about weeds and the prairies and didn't mention Kochia. It's, I mean, we have to, we have to talk about this. It is such a difficult weed to get a handle on. What are you feeling from, you know, with questions, etc. Of what if Kochi is a problem? Does pre seed burn off matter even more in that situation?
Big time. And you know, honestly, Kochi, unlike some of the other summer annuals where we really need to get into these 25 plus degree days to get them coming. Kochi likes to germinate very, very early and it takes advantage of these warm conditions to basically outgrow a lot of our cool season crops like canola and spring wheat. Right. So getting after that in the pre seed burn down is critical to get in control. We want to go after kosher when it's at a very small size and stage. So, you know, ahead of a cereal crop, a product like Core X2 works fantastic. Ahead of the canola crop prospect actually works really good as well. And you know, a couple tips on sharpening kosher control with prospects specifically would be to spray that at 10 US gallons to kind of get after that typically high density of Kochi on the ground. And in addition to that, look at adding about a half a percent volume to volume of a methylated seed oil type adjuvant. That's really going to help improve the herbicide's ability to penetrate that tough cuticle and really going to kind of increase the level of consistency and efficacy we see with a product combination like that.
Yeah. If anyone has ever looked at kosher close up, even when they're little, there's they're hairy and a thick cuticle. You got to get through that. So great advice there, Rhett. For anyone who's got maybe some questions on these products or what to do on the pre seed pass, where can they go for more information?
Yeah, I'd encourage them to reach out to their local retailer and or their Cortev agriscience representative. We love to sit down and have a chat about what that could look like and help you kind of land on which products are going to be the most suitable for the crop that you're growing and the driver weeds that you're seeing within your fields.
Okay. All right, Rhett, thank you so much for joining me here on Reel Ag Radio here on the Farmer Rapid Fire. That does it for today's show. Really appreciate it. It's been great these past couple months. We've been able to do this almost every week or every second week, which is kind of nice. It's nice to cheque out what's happening down in Saskatchewan.
Yeah, you bet. No, I appreciate it. And thanks for having me on, Lindsey. Always nice to have an avenue to kind of talk our products and really just relay some best practises and advice.
So. Yep. All right. Okay. We're going to leave it there. Thanks, everyone, for joining us here on the show. I'll be back tomorrow for the issues panel. Cheers, everybody.