For the week of May 12th
We were able to get started back up seeding again last Tuesday afternoon after being down for close to a full week from rain. Had a good run – we are now 45.6% complete. All the malt barley and oats are now planted. We have 67% of the wheat planted as well.
Two of the air drills are planting canola now, and later this week when we finish the wheat we will put the third unit into canola as well.
Usually we try and get at least one unit going in canola earlier on – but with oats now having limited options for preharvest (glyphosate to help dry down the plant) it takes a lot longer for natural dry down, so we decided to keep all 3 air drills in cereals in order to help with harvest strategy. Malt barley is always the first crop we seed – it matures sooner than wheat and oats, and allows us to get an earlier start on harvest. Wheat is a later maturing crop so we keep one unit planting it until it’s all done.
Prior to transitioning to straight cutting canola, we also had to space out planting dates – this would space out maturity dates and allow our swathers a chance to keep up. Once canola gets to mature you can’t swath – it will shell out too bad.
The next few days look favorable for planting to accelerate – until a weather event looks to be moving in by Thursday/ Friday.
