Farmers Looking For Options To Combat Wet Fields

Oct 07, 2019

Farmers are weighing their options when deciding on equipment upgrades that might help them get into the field sooner during this wet fall.

One option is to install tracks on a combine or tractor.

Mark Krahn is the branch manager at Greenvalley Equipment (GVE) in Altona.

"There's a lot of interest and a lot of talk around tracks these days on combines," he said. "Tracks will greatly increase the flotation of your combine so there's lots of conversations around that. It certainly will help us get across that mud a little easier and not cause ruts."

Krahn says many growers have learnt from their experiences in 2016 and are going straight to tracks to help get the crop off.

Another option is a flotation tire, according to Ken Hildebrand, owner of Sunvalley Tire in Winkler and Altona.

"The tire doesn't roll up with mud as easy, it flexes a little better so it rolls off," he said. "Compared to duals, where the duals tend to roll up with mud and just make big ruts and it's just been an amazing tire that has been working really good."

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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.