Weather improves for Western Cdn. farmers

Oct 29, 2018

Grain quality hasn’t been an issue so far, producers said

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

After inclement weather caused weeks of harvest delays, combines are once again rolling across Western Canada.

“We had about 15 per cent of our acres left to harvest before the snow hit,” Margaret Hansen, a cash crop producer from Moose Jaw, Sask. and the Saskatchewan vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, told Farms.com.

“After the snow started falling, we didn’t turn a wheel for the next five or six weeks straight, which starts to get concerning.”

Hansen was in the middle of oilseed and wheat harvest before the weather turned. But she hasn’t noticed any grain quality issues since harvest restarted.

“The quality hasn’t been as impacted as we would have originally thought,” she said. “The cool temperatures might have helped hold the quality. The wheat didn’t sprout, so it didn’t get so downgraded. I’ve heard that oats are looking pretty good too.”

Alberta farmers are also taking advantage of better weather.

The provincial harvest is almost 78 per cent complete, Alberta Agriculture says. That number is up from about 50 per cent last week.

The almost 30 per cent increase in harvested acres can be directly attributed to the weather, said Lynn Jacobson, president of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture.

“The weather has been kind to us and people are hopeful it will continue until the end of this week,” he told Farms.com.

As in Saskatchewan, grain quality in Alberta remains satisfactory.

“A few farmers who I’ve spoken to that have finished harvest said their wheat still had some colour to it and didn’t sprout.”

Jacobson urges producers to send harvest samples to the Canadian Grain Commission.

The Crown corporation extended its Harvest Sample Program deadline to accommodate farmers for a delayed harvest. Unregistered farmers have until Nov. 31 to sign up for the program, and registered farmers have until Dec. 31 to submit crop samples.

Taking advantage of the extended window can help producers in a few ways, Jacobson said.

“I’m telling everyone to get a free official grade from of the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) before a grain company comes to your farm,” he said. This information “will help you negotiate with a grain company. And it also lets the CGC know the quality of the crop that’s out there for sales and trading opportunities.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.