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Winter wheat sales last season were very good as there were some harvest rains, as well as Coldfront launching last year. AAC Coldfront - Slightly earlier vs wildfire, 11% over check for yield (we find about 5% over wildfire) MR for FHB, VG winter survival, R to MR rust ratings AAC Icefield - Hard White Winter Wheat - large showy heads, most of our customers will use for forage but it can also be used for feed or milling (We may be able to connect you to a milling end user but its a small milling market) Contact Blair Balog at 403-634-4349 (call or text) or [email protected] for pricing or for any questions! 
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Hybrid Rye has changed the fall crops marketplace
Hybrid Fall Rye:
SU Cossani - Grain type, stands great, drought tolerance and big grain yields SU Performer - Grain or forage, constant stable high yields with great winter hardiness KWS Serafino - Grain or forage, low ergot risk, industry standard! Contact Blair Balog at 403-634-4349 (call or text) or [email protected] for pricing or for any questions! Below are the complete results of the fall crop forage results. Each plot was 3'x10' taken in two different spots in the field and averaged out to give a good representation of the entire plot. Hybrid fall rye milk stage was taken on June 26th, fall triticale was taken at milk stage on July 9th and winter wheat was taken at soft dough on July 25th. Blair planted double crop plots after the milk stage of hybrid fall rye was taken off, he planted three different types of oats as well as forage sorghum. Stay tuned for those results Fall crop seed is available now, call 403-739-2233 or email Blair at [email protected] to inquire about pricing!    We held the below tour and have the video recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/@stampseeds/videos
Tuesday June 24th, 2025 Location: 0.5 Miles West of Enchant on Highway 526 or: https://maps.app.goo.gl/RA4jnz4SCgWB943c6 9:00 am - Refreshments 9:15 am
1:30 -3:30 pm
Greg was hanging out in the SeedNet plots for most of the 3 days of AIM this year. Many of you stoped in and say hi and chat about varieties! If you have not attended this show, it's the best Ag show in the west! https://aginmotion.ca/ The SeedNet booth/plots is along the West side on 1st street & Manitoba drive:  The past couple seasons we have had challenges with splits in LGL and chickpeas.
This year we hope to clean off combine or at least in Sept/Oct to minimize movements, and hopefully have a better product to sell for the CDC Lima large green lentils and the CDC Pasqua chickpea. This season was a success for the CDC Proclaim small red lentil quality and will treat those similarly again. We have had one person with bacterial blight in a barley crop, the lower leaves were yellow and streaky and wet - there is no registered control. This problem has been around for many years but there are seasons where it shows up and becomes a problem. Links to information on this problem: AB article , MB article   Stripe rust is not something we typically see, mainly because most varieties have resistance to it. If you see brown tips on a flag leaf of a cereal plant it could be leaf tip necrosis, and is the physiological way the plant is resisting stripe rust.
It can still show up mid-summer, this research looks at fungicide timing for stripe rust: https://canadianagronomist.ca/stripe-rust-control-in-spring-wheat/ Ergot can surprise farmers sometimes and there is not a whole lot you can do about it. This research shows that incidence has gone up over the last decade but severely has remained low: https://canadianagronomist.ca/ergot-trends-in-canada/
In the pipeline is a new Durum with lower ergot risk (and a I rating for FHB) with a full launch in fall 2026 called AAC Frontier: https://grainswest.com/2025/01/new-durum-better-than-ever/ Research was done on low plant populations vs high, as well as in low vs high FHB risk areas on timing of Fungicides. I do still like the higher plant populations leading to a more even flowering crop and hopefully better timing management for fungicides: https://canadianagronomist.ca/fusarium-head-blight-control-in-durum-wheat/
Seed treating is a fun topic! Some people go without, some apply it haphazardly, and some people are right on with use rates. Quality of Treatment We calibrate each seed lot so we are within 1% and usually within 1/2 of a % of target use rate. Coverage is another issue though, as you can be accurate on rates, but is coverage as good per seed or on each seed? Good coverage with treatments means every seed and each area of the seed is coated with the same amount of treatment. That's why rather than using large drums or faster treaters we went a different route for faster treating through our 3rd mobile treater so that coverage would not be impacted. Shipping Treated Seed When booking seed we do work with a trucking company who does haul treated seed if you don't want to put it in your own trucks. More farms are taking treated seed home off season (November - February) and storing like they would fertilizer so it's ready to use when you are. In winter we wait for Chinooks to treat so we have the best conditions for treating as above 0 C means that their will be no freezing and flaking. How Long Is Treatment Good For? We often get the question about how long is treatment good for on seed? Most companies say 1 year or more depending on the product. This is because until it is in the soil there is nothing breaking down the treatment, so your effectiveness is good no matter if it's treated 3 months before or a day before. Peat Inoculant For peat inoculant most are only good 24-48 hours on seed, while the AGTIV Pea, Lentil, Faba, peat brand we use is good for up to 20-30 days depending on conditions. On peas or faba beans we use 40 ac per pail, and lentils its 60 ac per pail. This means cost is similar per ac vs granular on the pea or faba beans and cheaper per ac for lentils. The nice part of peat is that as long as seed is flowing you have inoculant in the row with no additional work in the field.  Some research is suggesting fungicide at mid flower timing in flax might be better than earlier timing. Typically fungicides seemed to have more impact in MB and SK vs in Alberta
https://canadianagronomist.ca/pasmo-control-in-flax/ Spring nitrogen may be more important than we thought in the past, maybe some split applications could be considered if time. My only thought is that this research was done in an area with more natural rain and ability to move nutrients into the soil:
https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2025/06/hybrid-winter-rye-nitrogen-management-5.html Triticale has made a comeback as a forage crop, where did triticale come from? https://www.seedworld.com/europe/2023/07/20/achieving-the-perfect-triticale-hybrid-took-years-of-development/  KWS has put out this great hybrid fall rye harvest newsletter: (PDF at the bottom)   Hybrid rye harvest PDF below: 
Blair took a boot stage cut on the hybrid fall rye off on May 26th,2025. The boot stage cut is where a producer will get the best quality out of this forage. KWS Serafino took this cut, with KWS Aviator and Inspirator finishing right behind. Next cut will be taken in the next week at the milk stage, which is where you see your best tonnage.    We have a number of varieties we will be dropping from our lineup and directly replacing them with a new variety thats better. Because these new ones are such an advantage and have shown well on our farm we have a list already started for some of them for fall sales for the 25/26 season. This is not an extensive list but some of our major crops and varieties in CWRS, Durum, Pea, Barley, SWSW & GP Wheats: A friend shared some intercropping research with me, and it made me think that a flax faba cover crop early spring / fall crop blend ahead of beets might show some benefits? It's very different situation and more of a cover crop, but if you are looking to provide some cover between the rows for erosion this could be interesting?
Additional UK research on cover crops ahead of sugar beets: https://bbro.co.uk/media/51151/23-8-cover-crop-update.pdf I enjoyed this episode of the What The Futures podcast where Chuck and Dennis talk crop trends, market outlook, bright spots and challenges. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/what-the-futures/id1715185428?i=1000709527415
We keep expanding our variety offering, and customers and we ourselves ask why do we carry so many varieties? There are a few reasons
 Agriculture in the recently changed global economy. Peter's YouTube video showcases the big changes that have happened and how much risk some sectors of agriculture trade is currently in https://youtu.be/Y_jtHIezOqU?si=jKOMT3K0WB_JLY3V
I like to look into other areas for research to see what we can learn or modify for use here. I came across this practical field scale learnings using covers in Ontario and the success and failures of it.
 We had a customer compare untreated winter wheat vs a fungicide and insecticide treatment and the fall results showed a big difference in stage. Below is a picture from May 19 showing the difference in the same field. (Davis McCarthy of Simplot) I really think there is value to fall crop seed treatments for establishment & winter kill.  We have had one person with bacterial blight in a barley crop, the lower leaves were yellow and streaky and wet - there is no registered control. This problem has been around for many years but there are seasons where it shows up and becomes a problem.
Links to information on this problem: AB article , MB article |
AuthorsBlair Balog - Seed Specialist at Stamp Seeds Archives
October 2025
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