Harvest nearing completion Tisdale - Friday, September 14, 2012
The 2012 harvest is 56% complete as it was reported by CBC today, but here in the immediate Tisdale area, there may be as little as 30% still to be taken off. In driving around yesterday to the North then the East of town there are a few fields left to be straight combined. The peas and canola seem to have been harvested, though I did see a field or two of canola in swathes. The combines I saw yesterday and today, were working in cereal crops and from these pictures, you can see that conditions are perfect.
The farmers I have talked to say that yields are average, while there were some crops plower down in August that had been destroyed by excessive rain.
One of the noticeable practices that was seen last fall and is once again becoming very common, is for fields to be worked up almost immediately after the crop has been taken off. In the past, harvested fields were left in stubble and sprayed for weeds once before the arrival of winter. This practice was primarily to prevent loss of moisture from the soil, but farmers are expecting similar amounts of snow and precipitation this winter and are more concerned about having their fields ready to plant, as soon as it warms up in the spring. Another factor to consider is that though this is an average crop, the revenue from this year's crop will be considerably higher, simply because of the value of this year's production. With more cash available, the frugal once over with chemicals can be replaced by running the cultivation equipment over it, which will make the fields not only ready to seed, but they will dry up quicker.
The grain terminals have been filling cars, but Louis Dreyfus is not building a huge outdoor grain pile south of the terminal as they have done in other years, with the exception of last year.
We are looking at a series of pretty nice days in this coming week, so it is reasonable to assume that without rain or showers, this year's crop will be in the bin, or in some cases in the bags, by this time next week.
