Nice surprizes

[Jason]

Just got some pleasant surprizes, I figured the yield on my "poor" field of barley, no traditional fertilizer for 3 years no chemical at all this year.

Cost per acre of inputs this year $1.50 for organic seed treat, $8 for fuel for all operations (figured a little high to cover oil etc..)

Yield 32 bushels per acre ( my best ever on this field was 35 with $40 worth of traditional fert).

Next surprize, I can forward contract for Mar 07 delivery at $3.25 a bushel deliverd to Lethbridge. I almost forward contracted a couple loads at $2.55 for November delivery before harvest started. Glad I didn't.

Profit per acre $94.50, very nice surprize.

 

[PureCountry]

And who says natural won't pencil out? Congrats Jason, that's great to hear. Do you get ACRES-USA magazine? There was a great article in the recent issue about organic producers using compost tea on their land, and a couple of them were from Saskatchewan. They bought a machine for making their own tea in large volumes, from a guy out of New Mexico, I believe. Very interesting stuff. Our grazing club is looking at doing some more research into it.

Anyways, congrats again, keep up the good work. :wink:

 

[Maple Leaf Angus]

That is good news, Jason. There are not many farmers around here who can say they made that kind of money on grains this year. Usually the elevator should give a receipt for a charitable donation along with the measley check they give the farmer for his grain.

 

[andybob]

In the 70's when we had to begin min till and natural composts due to the UN oil embargo, it wasn't unusual for yields to drop in the first year, then rise over the next few years as the microflora in the soil balanced again, added benefits were better water retntion in the soil and reduced production costs. Rotational grazing schemes sometimes seemed to have the opposite effect to that desired in the more fragile areas, but once the turnaround started the results were dramatic.
Be persistant and as you have already experienced, the results will pay the bills.

 

[Jason]

I was basically forced to switch because of the belt tightening due to BSE.

I had experimented with organics back in the 80's but severe drought and crop insurance forced me into more traditional chemicals.

I dumped crop insurance in '97 best move I ever made, and started making crop decisions based on economic value. I would bale wild oats if the crop wasn't worth enough to thrash.

Many years I have bought all my grain as the crops weren't worth harvesting as grain. This field has been so dirty, I baled it almost every other year. Last year I got a wonderful germination with the organic seed treat and the barley was at the 4 leaf stage when the wild oats germinated. They came thick so I felt I had to spray, as I had enough feed from other fields.

When I sprayed I added a fish fertilizer and reduced the chemical, I got about a 20 bushel yield, I was going to be glad if I got that again this year, but 32 is much better. The wild oats never really came until way late, then a very thin flush that was too late to spray and not economically important to spray anyway.

I will soil test this fall to see how the land has changed, I had only 12 pounds of N on the test before last year's crop. Based on that, I should have only got a 12 bushel yield, and since I added no N this year my yield should have been nil. The organic matter in this field was only 2% as well, so it isn't the reason. It has to be the fish and seaweed that the seed treat has.

I am hoping to buy a tea brewer and apply tea to all my land, but the biggest one I have found is 500 gallons and you need to start at 20 gallons per acre to increase soil life. They estimate it will cost about a buck a gallon to brew the compost tea, you have to add things like fish to feed the growing microbes. The brewer is between $4000 and $8000.

One of the nice things I saw in this field is the barley actually choking the Canada Thistle. On the corner where I double seeded there wasn't hardly a thistle, where right next to it they were there but thinner than usual.

I can see how farming this way is sustainable. If a drought comes along you don't have the fert and chamical bill hanging on you. Even this year we only got a couple of inches but the crop did well.