We are looking for part time help treating seed between March 15 - May 31 at Enchant AB. It can be flexible days and hours, details here: https://www.stampseeds.com/jobs.html
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Last week Blair was at the farming smarter conference held in Lethbridge. Wrapping up the first day, Ryan Barnett, a potato agronomist from Prince Edward Island joined to talk about cover crop options before and after potatoes. One highlight that Blair took from the talk was how they are using mustard and buckwheat to help control against wireworms.
Mustard and buckwheat are sensitive to frost, which can be a challenge for southern Alberta. Another challenge to consider are crop rotations, with seed canola being very common in areas where potatoes are grown ,you would want to avoid growing mustard. If rotation is not an issue, and wireworms are a risk on some of your acres, Mustard 21 has a new hybrid brown mustard called AAC Guard. It is a hybrid brown that does not produce seed, which will help the volunteer risk. We have been getting questions about crops that can do well with lower water so that irrigators can move water to other crops.
I am planning on hosting a dry crops on irrigation webinar in early to mid March, but here is some information so you can get thinking of adjustments. Fall crops like Hybrid Fall Rye & Winter Wheat would be a good choice so consider that for this coming fall as they use water earlier so take advantage of spring moisture better. Rye has double the root systems of other crops so it is more of a scavenger for water and the hybrids can handle stress better vs non hybrids. Water timing:
Yields with reduced water:
Choices to lower water use:
What crop can you grow if you will be limited on water?
Dr. Brian Beres has a great podcast discussion on Spotify with Carmen Prang of Sask Wheat about winter cereals agronomy:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4b6dJBWpjJLjH7YZmUpp8q?si=Ab604zqwSROkpZG6iQZ5aQ Alberta Water Portal Society posted this history of drought:
https://albertawater.com/history-of-drought-in-alberta/#_edn2 I attended the AIDA conference in lethbridge last week and there was some interesting forecasts and charts presented. It really made me think of the bigger picture of water use.
I attended the irrigation districts conference last week with the theme about drought. Here are some images on water supplies based on snowpack & reservoir levels to date and some estimates on snowfall in the mountains based on high or low end of season snow Cover Crop Webinar - February 13th
Join Blair Balog and Kevin Elmy of Imperial Seeds on February 13th at 9 am on Zoom as they talk about cover crops, grazing options and overall agronomy: Events Walter Schwabe Spoke on AI at Crossroads Conference. He suggests the AI is coming to agriculture, and those that use it will move ahead of those that don't. My thoughts, are that qualifying and integrating the information will be the challenge, I think opportunities will be in weather forecasting, probabilities of decisions (like a fungicide or an insecticide risk vs reward of use.) Many ag decisions are made on experience, gut feel, or preventative decisions to lower risk. AI could make these decisions easier and better. Carlo Dade of the Canada West Foundation spoke at Crossroads about the perception of Canadian trade. It's perceived that we don't have the same ability to make things happen that we used to. Also there is no long term strategy to address trade. We can produce it but we have perceived or real issues connecting to customers. I always enjoy listening to Drew Learner of https://worldweather.cc He’s thinking maybe a dry start to the season and at some point transition to wetter mid summer. The weather trend will have a lot to do with the transition from El Niño to La Niña (typically when that happens = moisture) This could also mean a wetter fall vs last few years. The Bow River Irrigation District has published a note stating they will allow water allocation trading and selling for 2024. Total allocation of water per ac will be known in April 2024.
The Alberta Government published a drought document with a precipitation map from 2023:
Outlook on field crops from AAFC
https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/sector/crops/reports-statistics/canada-outlook-principal-field-crops-2023-12-15 Terrence Koshman from Viterra speaks on recent market events. It is a great commentary on where and how crop markets are moving as well as new crop moves: https://storage.pardot.com/864682/1706017594IaLzmUK8/Weekly_Audio_Commentary___January_23_2024.m4a
Kris Moric from Johnstons Grain sent me new crop mustard prices.
Contact Kris if you are interested: Cell/WhatsApp: 5878994441 kris@johnstonsgrain.com www.johnstonsgrain.com : Yellow - #1 CW - Max 9% MC - SSA - Sept 2024/July 2025 - Act of God upto 10 bu/acre - first and last right of refusal - $0.60/lb Oriental Mustard - #1 CW - Max 9% MC - SSA - Sept 2024/July 2025 - Act of God up to 10 bu/acre - first and last right of refusal - $0.42 (Cutlass only, limited availability) Brown Mustard - #1 CW - Max 9% MC - SSA - Sept 2024/July 2025 - Act of God up to 10 bu/acre - first and last right of refusal - #1 0.45 / #2 43 / #3 0.40 / #4 0.36 Act of God, Sept 1/2024 – July 31, 2025 delivery period. For mustard seed contact Blair Balog at 403-634-4349 (call or text) or blair@stampseeds.com We will be carrying a NEW hybrid mustard called AAC Guard. We don't have too many details yet, but it will not produce seeds as long as its not near a flowering brassica crop when the cover is flowering.
It will cover the ground about 20% faster versus regular mustard meaning it could produce 20% more glucosinolates = better disease and nematode control. It is a brown mustard so that can be a host for the sys nematode that impacts sugar beets. By not producing seed AAC Guard hybrid brown mustard would be less of a contaminant risk as a cover crop option. We hope to have pricing on this in a couple weeks. Surge Spring Triticale School Next week - Friday February 2, 2024 9:00 AM 2024
TriCal and Canterra will join us to talk about triticale production for forage and how the new varieties can impact your farm with TriCal Surge launching now. We will talk about forage yield and TDN comparisons vs. corn and soft wheat's and barley, use rates, standability, and lower water use with triticale. Add to your Calendar: Outlook Calendar (.ics) Join here: https://www.stampseeds.com/events.html Praire Fava from MB is looking to contract irrigation acres of faba beans for this coming season in Alberta and may consider all areas in AB. We have had the pleasure of working with this company for over 5 years.
Prairie Fava wants Fabelle and also may consider a very small amount of Allison faba bean (a new variety we can supply for you as well) Contact Hailey Jefferies at Prairie Fava at 2047214715 hailey@prairiefava.com For seed contact Blair Balog at 403-634-4349 (call or text) or blair@stampseeds.com We attended the Irrigated Crop Production Update in Lethbridge last week and it was a great event with speakers ranging from farmers, researchers, to irrigation district managers. The Southern river basin impacting mainly the SMRID is the most impacted with 20% lower snowpack levels and low reservoir levels relative to the need. Other districts further north are going into winter with normal winter reservoir levels but 30% lower snowpack trends as well. Irrigation policy and trends were talked about as well as trends in more efficient use and delivery of water.
Irrigators drought outlook from Alberta Environment & Protected Areas:
I always learn something from looking at other provinces seed guides. These are from the 2023 season. PDF's here:
This Braintrust AG an article on whole farm planning (understanding the dynamics of the farm family), accrual vs market balance sheets and the do's and don'ts of business partnerships.
https://braintrustag.beehiiv.com/p/newsletter-17-farm-family-balance-sheets-business-partnerships John Deere has chosen Starlink as a internet /data partner for areas with poor cell service: https://archive.ph/2024.01.15-191955/https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/john-deere-meet-elon-musk-spacex-satellites-to-link-farm-giants-equipment-e0936668 Another interesting link is from the CES (non ag tech show) where they show people managing machines remotely. Is this the future of allowing one person to manage a fleet of machinery? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4l5KHrYwng or watch below: |
AuthorsBlair Balog - Seed Specialist at Stamp Seeds Archives
April 2024
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