A big publication is always the regional variety trials comparing varieties across the province. We use this to gain perspective vs varieties we know and understand and to compare to what we are seeing in our own yield trials. https://www.seed.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/rvt-spring2025.pdf ![]()
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Structure and communication is critical in farm businesses, take a look at this article outlining some ideas around farm management and planning: Article on X here
Farms who have grown have really had to step up HR practices, but I think it has a place for any size of farm, no matter if you hire 1 or 20 people. This podcast had some interesting ideas in it that some of us can implement on our farms. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-truth-about-ag/id1740590178?i=1000681753331
January 9th is farm transition day with FMC, this website has a farm transition toolkit, and there is also a virtual event that day around planing for farm transitions on Jan 9th: https://fmc-gac.com/ftaday/
Bruce Warkentin of MNP had a neat graphic from 2018 on crop types on irrigation and acres of each. The diversity is amazing. For a larger image click here.
Hybrid winter wheat in the USA is becoming closer to a reality. https://www.corteva.com/resources/media-center/corteva-announces-breakthrough-in-wheat-technology.html
How soon we see this in Canada in winter wheat or in spring wheats I am not sure. These advancements eventually should help stabilize crops in drought and improve top end yields. Lentil Management
Normally we grow lentils on dryland but this year we had our red lentils on irrigation. Our best field did 48 bu average per ac, the other field was lower, it had some lower ground and volunteer alfalfa on the outside edge as we added a corner arm onto it recently. We used 65 lbs per ac of 11-52 in seed row and targeted 14 plants per sq foot. Here is some information from APG on lentil market classes and production. & SPG also has some great lentil production info as well. Herbicides
We have Clearfield red and green lentils available and the acres seem to keep growing! Reds are earlier and shorter vs. green lentils. CDC Lima CL - Large Green
CDC SImmie CL - Small Red - a newer option to try Yields CDC Proclaim has been a solid varieties in dry and wet years that its a wonder anyone grows CDC Maxim still, see AFSC reported yields chart: Pulse Market Changes
Russia had implemented a 5% export tax on pea, lentil, & chickpea's which should increase the current floor price of pulses https://www.interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/108916/ India has extended its duty free period to Feb 2025, I doubt that means lots of new export business for Canada this season, but it does give me some hope of good pea prices longer term. https://ukragroconsult.com/en/news/india-extends-duty-free-import-of-yellow-peas-by-two-months-till-february-2025/ Thanks to Chuck Penner of LeftField for the links Pea Management Plant Stand:
Yellow Pea Seed Offerings We are launching 3 varieties of yellow peas this season making it hard to chose the best one to buy. All will be equal to better versus the varieties we are replacing. You might of noticed that we have added and dropped a few varieties quickly over the past 5 years like: CDC Inca, CDC Lewochko, and CDC Hickie, this was mainly due to inconstant yields on our farm. While others like AAC Lacombe, AAC Chrome, AAC Carver we have moved on from due to seed coat breakage issues. Here is our 2025 Yellow Pea Offering and Guide:
Green Pea Seed Green peas have had new crop prices (fall 2025) in the $11-12 range picked up making them a lot higher than current new crop yellow pea bids. The risk with green peas is bleaching due to rain or environmental factors like extreme heat closer to maturity causing some discolouration. We have CDC Forest green pea seed cleaned and ready. They did well on irrigation this season, standing well and yielding about 77 bu per ac. (our yellow peas were seeded later and 40 km away so thought to compare.) Our yield demo for peas on irrigation was flooded out and uneven so we had to mow it out. 4010 Forage Pea 4010 pea seed Most of our customers use these in forage blends to increase protein in silage. I was told recently that 4010's are considered by some to be a maple pea. Taslar (Hasan Taslar 306-500-5522 ) is interested in contracting 4010's. I don't know much about this company but I do see they are bonded by the CGC so thats good! This variety will go flat on you when grown alone so roll your land and ideally seed between stubble so the stubble holds up the plants better when they lodge. Trendy marketing talks about segmenting customers so you can talk specifically with them, which makes sense as we all have more data available. But how do we provide solutions to your problems and/or opportunities for you with a product you want and need!
It's something I think about weekly in all that we do. Thanks to Rick Stamp for sending me the article: https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&tpcc=orgsocial_edit We have had the privilege of touring the Kirkham Collection in Lethbidge in the past, which is a private collection of antique International trucks. They have an open house day Saturday Jan 4th: https://oldinternationaltrucks.com/whens-the-next-kirkham-collection-open-house/ Marian Stamp was awarded this medal last week for her contribution to the agricultural and rural community. People are nominated (Its unknown who nominated her) and she was very honoured to receive this.
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/medals/medals-chart-index/king-charles-iiis-coronation-medal.html We had our staff Christmas party this weekend and two of our staff received 5 year awards. Congratulations to George and Ricky
The dropping Canadian $ has meant that imported feed has stayed high propping up feed barley and wheat prices.
Barley:
We and many of our customers experienced more lodging than normal in 2024. Matt from Premium Ag commented on our summer tour that there was more available nitrogen in the soil in spring vs normal. He also talked about the N being closer to the surface and zone variability in a field.
We have noticed that European and American barley varieties have more tillering capacity vs Canadian bred varieties, meaning we should be using lower seeding rates vs others. Irrigation we have been at 25-30 plants per sq foot targets, and dryland 15-25 plants target. I think my strategy for Esma, Sirish, SY Stanza, and Bill Coors 100 on irrigation will be closer to 25 plants now with some people going to back to 20 plants on the Bill Coors 100 variety. We use Moddus PGR on all of our irrigated barley and I think that is the best bet for standability. We even did 2 passes on a weaker standing barley variety in 2024 vs only one in 2023. For irrigated wheats and oats I really like Manipulator PGR. When we do an irrigated winter wheat it seems like the herbicide timing and PGR timing is perfect to tank mix. For spring crops we have done separate passes and or a tank mix with manipulator. Talk to your chemical retailer or the reps below for optimum tank mixing: Manipulator: Jamie Stringam 403 915 6018 Moddus: Sterling Mitchell: 403 461 8321 Remember to talk to your buyer before using a PGR to make sure there are no market risks. Alberta wheat stem sawfly maps have been posted here: https://www.alberta.ca/wheat-stem-sawfly-forecast
We do have semi solid CWRS & solid durum varieties. Kambeitz farms talk about culture, team dynamics, traceability and more: link here
McDougall Acres Grainex Inc gave a great presentation at our seed update: https://youtu.be/zEd6VE2nTfU
They contract, process and export chickpeas based out of Moose Jaw, SK. They are contracting the below varieties (pricing usually comes out early January at the Crop Production Show but you can contact them now to start the process: McDougall Acres Grainex Inc We will be selling their new chickpea varieties and can price seed and use rates now. These varieties are tied to their contracts.
Terence Koshman of Viterra gave a great presentation on the grain market outlook: https://youtu.be/9WsJRkf6LsY
The Canadian $ has been helping feed grain pricing, canola is very volatile as most companies don't want ships to be turned away from China. He has so much good information in here that it's a must listen / watch due to the charts, trends and history with each market. After he talked about the downside risk in durum the price went up over .25 cents per bu a few days later. 😆 In fairness no one really knows for sure but we have to look at all the information we have to make the best decisions for long term. Canada Malting is interested in contracting new crop AB Dram 2 row malt barley at a number of its locations, contact them for details: https://canadamalting.com/contact/
It's a unique variety as it is a non gn for distilling and should perform like CDC Copland for yield and standability. We have had yields as high as 140 bu averages with AB Dram and we do use Moddus PRG on irrigation to help it stand (but we do on all barley varieties). Aphanomyces root rot and the root rot complex is a big problem for some farms, Cassandra from The Rack retail group in Saskatchewan sent this to me based on research they did. Seed placed fertility played a big role in pea growth in all cases, herbicides with foliar nutrients vs herbicide alone also impacted disease incidence and plant growth. Details below: ![]()
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document. Remote machine operation has come to heavy equipment: https://www.grainews.ca/machinery/cat-machines-allow-for-semi-autonomous-control/
I wonder how long it will be until we have one person supervising 3-4 machines in a field? CrossRoads – Alberta’s Crop Conference Jan 28-29th in Edmonton has registration open: https://crossroadscropconference.ca/
The Irrigated Crop Production Update 1 day in person conference in Lethbridge will be held January 23rd.
Early bird registration is open now: link here The virtual agronomy update (Jan 14 &15) registration is open: https://www.agronomyupdate.ca/AU2025
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AuthorsBlair Balog - Seed Specialist at Stamp Seeds Archives
February 2025
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