08/06/2021
It is dry out there. Our area may have received slightly more rain than some, mostly on the edges of a pretty wide swath of hail, but this year will see a lot of single digit yields recorded when harvest wraps up.
There is much to lament, and there are plenty of social media posts doing this already. There are cows being sold, feed trucked in, contracts that need to be bought out, inputs that need to be paid for.
But we also need to decide to learn some things from a year like this. Because we can't be sure that there won't be a couple more right after it.
So what am I learning this year?
I'm learning that I need to keep as much stubble standing as possible. I cut or swathed a section and a half last year instead of running the stripper header. And it shows. The photo is of an area in one of those fields that my neighbor ridged snow to keep it from blowing into his yard. So the arc that is green is the area that was bladed and snow blew back in and packed on. It has looked like this from mid June, and now as the field is ripe the section that caught extra snow is 10 inches taller and has much larger heads. Catching snow with taller stubble can be a big benefit in a year like this.
I'm learning that I need to disturb less at seeding. This year I ran a hoe drill on a few acres in order to level some fields that we are going to farm in the opposite direction from now on. It is also on the fields that were cut and not stripped so there is a lot going against those fields. Fields seeded with my disc drill look far better than with the hoe drill.
I learned tillage a bad move. I had a field that I hadn't seeded with a hoe drill since the fire so it was still rough from ripping it to keep from blowing. The field needs to be farmed perpendicular to the direction we ripped it so it was time to just get the chisel plough out of the weeds and do it once and for all. Well this wasn't the year for that. It grew, but I lost so much precious moisture and soil structure from that operation that as soon as it turned dry that field was the first to start suffering.
I learned (finally) that flax can't go in the ground early. Even in a dry year. Flax needs warmer soils to establish well and sometimes early May is too cold even in this area.
I'm learning that sometimes the seeding rates that provide optimal yields in a perfect year are a detriment in a dry year. Fields that I seeded at high rates or overlap areas are the first to burn up in a year like this. Adjusting rates can be the difference between running a combine and collecting crop insurance sometimes. And higher rates can lead to lower bushel weight too.
Along with seeding rates, I'm learning we need to be able to stage some fertilizer application, especially going into next spring. It is highly unlikely that with even average moisture we will be able to grow an average crop next year because our soils are completely depleted of moisture. There will also be some nutrients left over from previous years of application because we didn't grow enough crop to utilize them all. So soil testing and being able to apply in season nutrients if things turn around next year could be a real benefit. Management isn't just about spending extra money in the right place, it is also about not spending money in the wrong place in some instances.
And finally. Residue Residue Residue. Standing and laying down. Keeping the soil covered is what will limit high soil temperatures and reduce evaporation. Standing stubble will slow down the hot winds and protect seedlings from being beat up, after hopefully catching some snow over winter too. That is going to mean changing up rotation (AGAIN!) to more cereals and never growing a broadleaf after a broadleaf. It might mean dropping pulses altogether for a few years until we are out of this cycle. And, as much as I don't like it, it might mean saying no to baling off a crop. Even at the price of feed, it may be short changing your operation for years to come if we continue with the drought. We are seeing the effects of fire five years after. It is very possible that residue removal could have 3 years of impact if we continue in this pattern.
Don't say about this year "I'm glad that's over with and I'll never think about it again" because we will get years like this again. Use it to learn what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Many things you learn in a poor year are just as applicable in a good year.
