# Farming sucks again this year.



## 6.5 Fan (Sep 3, 2022)

Was talking to my brother who rents some land from me, currently combining the canola. When i asked him how big of a trip i was getting this winter on my crop share he said , "you might get as far as town and have one beer only" Bloody crop is worse than last year and we had more rain this season. Well not much more but enough to keep pastures green till the nasty heat in Aug. Jeeez i love this life, spend a bunch of money to make a little.


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## Susquatch (Sep 3, 2022)

6.5 Fan said:


> Jeeez i love this life, spend a bunch of money to make a little.



It's gunna be the same story coast to coast this year. Fertilizer, fuel, and pesticides are eating what little is left after mother nature is done with us.


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## Chicken lights (Sep 3, 2022)

No politics 

But I can’t stand people trying to blame inflation on climate change 

It makes my head hurt that people don’t understand where food comes from. That’s all I’m gonna say


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## DPittman (Sep 3, 2022)

6.5 Fan said:


> Was talking to my brother who rents some land from me, currently combining the canola. When i asked him how big of a trip i was getting this winter on my crop share he said , "you might get as far as town and have one beer only" Bloody crop is worse than last year and we had more rain this season. Well not much more but enough to keep pastures green till the nasty heat in Aug. Jeeez i love this life, spend a bunch of money to make a little.


Was it because of the heat?
Around here things started out very dismal and dry and then in the "11th" hour it started to rain.  Crop prospects really did a 180.  Insects and heat were pretty extreme but yields generally vary from average to fantastic.


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## Doggggboy (Sep 3, 2022)

6.5 Fan said:


> Was talking to my brother who rents some land from me, currently combining the canola. When i asked him how big of a trip i was getting this winter on my crop share he said , "you might get as far as town and have one beer only" Bloody crop is worse than last year and we had more rain this season. Well not much more but enough to keep pastures green till the nasty heat in Aug. Jeeez i love this life, spend a bunch of money to make a little.


Where are you located in Sask?
My brother in law is near Montmartre and is looking at the best crop in 20 years.
Lentils, canola and Durum.
A month late compared to last year but  looking good.


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## 6.5 Fan (Sep 3, 2022)

!00 miles oh sorry 160 km for the enlightened, south of Saskatoon.  Crops got a poor start with cold dry spring, spotty emergence then gophers swarmed out of the bare pastures faster than i could load the rifle. Rain was very spoty, one guy got 1.5 inches and 3 miles away nada. Just a week ago we had some storms roll in, i got 1.25" my daughter 4 miles away got 4/10ths. Then the hoppers appeared. Just a poor year in this area, irrigation pipeline ends 5 miles east of my farm.


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## CalgaryPT (Sep 3, 2022)

I was born in Lethbridge, and spent most of my summers as a teenager working there and around Warner and Magrath (catching rattlesnakes for research believe or not). 

Lethbridge, with the exception of a short stint into the high tech realm, is agricultural to its core. If the crops are bad and the whole city hurts. 

It infuriates me that people don’t appreciate farmers and ranchers. These people are feeding us, the world through exports, and even saving nations like China during Mao’s disastrous rule by sending lifesaving grain overseas. 

I appreciate all you farmers, and admire your courage and persistence in the face of what seems bad luck year after year. I’d love to see a work program where woke snowflakes have to work on a farm and understand where their food comes from.   

Oh wait, they tried that with Paris Hilton on “The Simple Life,” and that didn’t work out. Plus she’s not really woke. Plus, she’s……ah never mind. 

[/RANT]


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## whydontu (Sep 3, 2022)

I can’t remember the exact source and phrasing of this quote, and never worked on a farm, but I truly appreciate the work of farmers and fishers and ranchers.

”You can make fun of that slow-talking, slope-shouldered farm boy, but he’s done more work by 7:00 AM Monday than your cubicle-dwelling office worker will do all week.”


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## David_R8 (Sep 3, 2022)

CalgaryPT said:


> I was born in Lethbridge, and spent most of my summers as a teenager working there and around Warner and Magrath (catching rattlesnakes for research believe or not).
> 
> Lethbridge, with the exception of a short stint into the high tech realm, is agricultural to its core. If the crops are bad and the whole city hurts.
> 
> ...


Hey Pete, till I was 15 I lived on an acreage that bordered the land by the penitentiary.


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## DPittman (Sep 3, 2022)

David_R8 said:


> Hey Pete, till I was 15 I lived on an acreage that bordered the land by the penitentiary.


That's pretty nice location!


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## David_R8 (Sep 3, 2022)

DPittman said:


> That's pretty nice location!


It was. Good place to grow up and appreciate hard work and growing your own food. We had a garden that was likely a 1/3 acre. Probably dug 500 lbs of potatoes every Fall.
Just looked at the old place on Google Maps. The 10 acres was subdivided into four parcels. Dugout is still there, as is the shop my dad built solo but the double wide house was replaced with a big mansion looking place.


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## CWret (Sep 3, 2022)

I appreciate all those that respectfully use Canada's natural resources to give us all a better life. @whydontu, along with the farmers, fishers and ranchers - I'd include those working in forestry, mining, and fossil fuels.


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## Susquatch (Sep 3, 2022)

DPittman said:


> Was it because of the heat?
> Around here things started out very dismal and dry and then in the "11th" hour it started to rain.  Crop prospects really did a 180.  Insects and heat were pretty extreme but yields generally vary from average to fantastic.


I am taller than my corn...... That's baaadddd..... And sad too.


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## BMW Rider (Sep 4, 2022)

Reminds me of the old saying: To make a small fortune in farming, start with a large one.


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## SomeGuy (Sep 4, 2022)

Little bit of a tip toe...

I've never heard a single normal person be upset with the work farmers do or want anyone to make it harder on them. This is why it boggles my mind that there are people in certain positions that think we should make it more difficult through backasswords regulations. It just doesn't add up...especially when we do things in Canada in the most environmentally/sustainable ways already and have incredibly abundant natural resources that we should be using.

Anyway, not that I'm a farmer (unless a couple cherry tomato plants, and a pot of basil, and pot of dill count) but here in southwestern ontario it feels like it's been a really dry summer...my yard has been crisped pretty much all summer, though I've avoided watering it as it's just throwing away money these days. I imagine the farmers around here have been having a tough go at it, none of the fields look as tall as usual.


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## historicalarms (Sep 4, 2022)

In my area of central Ab. we had the best timed and most rain we've had in 10 yrs, best looking cereal crop in that time frame....it was beautiful....until one of those "big white combines" hit a month ago and left at least 40% damage so it will be another "ho-hum" harvest.


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## 6.5 Fan (Sep 4, 2022)

Next year, that is a saying that gets us through. Cow/calf prices look good so far though.


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## historicalarms (Sep 4, 2022)

6.5 Fan said:


> Next year, that is a saying that gets us through. Cow/calf prices look good so far though.


  They better "continue" to look good, forcast hay prices for this fall locally is $100-150 for 1000 lb bale . I know a cow-calf operator ( I buy our beef from him farm-direct) that lives 25 miles east of me that has 350 pairs and his hay crop was 10% of normal....he'll be selling off 1/2 his herd (his dad and he spent 45 yrs building the heard) just to buy feed for the 1/2 he keeps.


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## 6.5 Fan (Sep 4, 2022)

Ya we may be buying hay again this year, the green feed oat crop wasn't much better than last year. Haven't looked at feed prices yet, have straw to bale and hay sloughs to cut and bale.


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## DPittman (Sep 4, 2022)

BMW Rider said:


> Reminds me of the old saying: To make a small fortune in farming, start with a large one.


Yup unfortunately having the small fortune to begin with is what kept me from being able to farm in the first place. .  So I did the next best thing.....I got to tell others how to farm (and got paid to do it)!


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## CalgaryPT (Sep 4, 2022)

Maybe some of you farmers on the forum should look at growing the Jalapenõ hybrid used in Sriracha Hot Sauce. My favourite condiment is impossible to find because of the California drought. The product (if you can find it) on eBay and Amazon is $63 each now. But most of them are counterfeit and not the original—even though the bottles are. Turns out the guy who invented the wonderful sauce (David Tran) failed to trademark the name—so it's perfectly legal to counterfeit the bottles and fill them with anything.

Seriously though, in Alberta at least, the grow zone has recently changed from 3b to 4a ( https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-...ts-new-designation-for-plant-growth-1.2970507 ). The peppers take 4+ months to grow, but in Alberta we'd need to harvest in late September I'm guessing. If the weather continues to remain hot year after year, I'm not certain we couldn't pull this off even though they normally cultivate in a grow zone 10.

With my shop shut down I'm looking at a grow tent in there for hot peppers. I used to grow hot peppers in our undeveloped basement when we first bought the house. But it's all developed now so the garage (ex-metal shop) looks like a better alternative. With the LED grow lights available now and all the new controller technology, I'm getting the urge to restart a 25 year old hobby again. Keeping the nutrient solution warm in the winter is the one looming problem I'm still thinking through.

If we could all send some collective good thoughts towards California—and specifically Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale—I'd appreciate it,  as I'm fairly certain I've developed a medical dependency on this condiment. I used my last few drops on a Chinese dumpling back in June and am starting to panic now. The fact that I recall when I used it, and what I used it on, shows the depth of my addiction. If I can figure out an alternative to the fermentation process that's acceptable, I may just try making the stuff myself. You can buy the seeds online (although sadly they are not open pollinated, so you cannot harvest the seeds year after year).

I just cannot run the risk of a shortage like this again. At $63 bucks a bottle there must be a business case here, even hydroponically.


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## Susquatch (Sep 4, 2022)

Count me out @CalgaryPT . I would die just breathing the air blowing over a field of hot peppers.


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## CalgaryPT (Sep 4, 2022)

Susquatch said:


> Count me out @CalgaryPT . I would die just breathing the air blowing over a field of hot peppers.


It's actually one of the mildest hot sauces on the market. And the hybrid jalapenõ they are made from is bred to to be even milder than your average jalapenõ, which is pretty mild to begin with.

But I take your point—hot peppers are not everyone's cup of tea.


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## Chicken lights (Sep 4, 2022)

CalgaryPT said:


> It's actually one of the mildest hot sauces on the market. And the hybrid jalepenõ they are made from is bred to to be even milder than your average jalepenõ, which is pretty mild to begin with.
> 
> But I take your point—hot peppers are not everyone's cup of tea.


If you’re in southern Texas, and the mamasita behind the taco stand asks if you want mild or spicy.... with a bit of a smile on her face.... go with mild 

I like spicy just fine but some of them are pure evil 

But homemade southern salsa is heavenly


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## LenVW (Sep 4, 2022)

I grew up on a beef farm near Goderich, Ont.
Corn was grown to fill a 120‘ x 50‘ bunker silo and a 70‘ high moisture corn silo.
Every year the equipment expenses grew larger while the prices for cattle at the livestock sales reduced.

On Saturday night I walked by a place in our Kitchener neighborhood with the garage door open exposing a hydroponic operation with 6 layers of plants that were exploding from their plant boxes.
I stopped to talk to the owner who was standing on his crispy dry lawn.
He grows salad type leafy plants for local restaurants and cannot keep up with demand.

You can be successful at agriculture as long as your customer is nearby.


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## DPittman (Sep 4, 2022)

CalgaryPT said:


> With the LED grow lights available now and all the new controller technology, I'm getting the urge to restart a 25 year old hobby again.


Yes I too think it would be fun and very dooable as you say with the tech available.


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## CalgaryPT (Sep 4, 2022)

LenVW said:


> I grew up on a beef farm near Goderich, Ont.
> Corn was grown to fill a 120‘ x 50‘ bunker silo and a 70‘ high moisture corn silo.
> Every year the equipment expenses grew larger while the prices for cattle at the livestock sales reduced.
> 
> ...


My original basement operation had all hot peppers in it. Things grew like weeds hydroponically. The chef across the street bought everyone I would give him. I swear on some days you could see them grow. Hydroponics are so cool.


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## Chicken lights (Sep 4, 2022)

CalgaryPT said:


> My original basement operation had all hot peppers in it. Things grew like weeds hydroponically. The chef across the street bought everyone I would give him. I swear on some days you could see them grow. Hydroponics are so cool.


We encourage this new endeavour 

Send pics of course


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## Tom O (Sep 4, 2022)

Reminds me of the chilli in “ Wild Hogs “ “ Last year a guy actually bled! “
I just use Franks hot sauce.


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## 6.5 Fan (Sep 5, 2022)

No hot sauce for me, S&P with a little garlic. Maybe grow some pot, bake some brownies, sit back and enjoy my retirement for a change.


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## Doggggboy (Sep 5, 2022)

CalgaryPT said:


> Maybe some of you farmers on the forum should look at growing the Jalapenõ hybrid used in Sriracha Hot Sauce. My favourite condiment is impossible to find because of the California drought. The product (if you can find it) on eBay and Amazon is $63 each now. But most of them are counterfeit and not the original—even though the bottles are. Turns out the guy who invented the wonderful sauce (David Tran) failed to trademark the name—so it's perfectly legal to counterfeit the bottles and fill them with anything.
> 
> Seriously though, in Alberta at least, the grow zone has recently changed from 3b to 4a ( https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-...ts-new-designation-for-plant-growth-1.2970507 ). The peppers take 4+ months to grow, but in Alberta we'd need to harvest in late September I'm guessing. If the weather continues to remain hot year after year, I'm not certain we couldn't pull this off even though they normally cultivate in a grow zone 10.
> 
> ...


I have an unopened bottle in the pantry. I love hot sauce but don't care for this style.
Yours for the shipping if you want.


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## CalgaryPT (Sep 5, 2022)

Lol. That’s nice of you but they are supposed to restart production tomorrow. Sell it on eBay before the new stuff hits the shelf.


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