That time of year again.

Started harvest this monday. Looks to be good yields so far. Hope mother nature cooperates a little and we get it done on a timely basis.

I talked to my brother yesterday and they have been going strong for a couple weeks now in Alberta. Wish I was there.

What are they harvesting up there?

Yes we have had lots of heat up here in central AB this fall, I would say overall everyone is around 50-60% done. Up here the crops are Oats, Barley, Wheat , Canola, and Peas. Got all my greenfeed and second cut alfalfa baled and hauled, and just finished up baling 200 round barley straw. It has been great fall so far for harvesting. Too bad the cattle price still sucks. Oh well maybe I'll break even on the farm this year.

Later Mark

Is the BSE scare still hurting the cattle prices up there Mark? The guys with cattle around here are saying the prices are pretty decent. I have two buddies that are custom harvesters and they said they will have a couple of machines up in North Dakota till the end of October because the crops are so good up there. Be safe and have a bountifull harvest.

Its not really the BSE anymore as there are testing procedures in place although there is still some significance to the issue. The problem is the Can dollar is too high. The majority of the Can animals go to US feed lots which only buy when they get a good deal IE low Can dollar. Why buy a feeder at $1.00/lb when it was previously was $0.70/lb. That is probably the biggest issue. For the last 5-8 years some of us younger Beef farmers have been waiting and saying with all the old timers selling out the breeding stock overall has to be dropping drastically which should be a benefit to the guys that keep plugging away at it, but no sign of anything good yet. I just talked to the sales consultant at the local Auction Mart and 600 lbs steer are only bringing $1.06/lbs and heifers $0.15/lbs less. We may just have too many Beef cattle up here ? Or the biggest buyer for Can Beef is/was the US. Nobody knows what the hell to do ??? I guess I'll just keep my off farm job for what 15-25 more years. Its the only way I can make ends meet and still build a BBF or two. LOL

Later Mark

Mark Laczo wrote:Its not really the BSE anymore as there are testing procedures in place although there is still some significance to the issue. The problem is the Can dollar is too high. The majority of the Can animals go to US feed lots which only buy when they get a good deal IE low Can dollar. Why buy a feeder at $1.00/lb when it was previously was $0.70/lb. That is probably the biggest issue. For the last 5-8 years some of us younger Beef farmers have been waiting and saying with all the old timers selling out the breeding stock overall has to be dropping drastically which should be a benefit to the guys that keep plugging away at it, but no sign of anything good yet. I just talked to the sales consultant at the local Auction Mart and 600 lbs steer are only bringing $1.06/lbs and heifers $0.15/lbs less. We may just have too many Beef cattle up here ? Or the biggest buyer for Can Beef is/was the US. Nobody knows what the hell to do ??? I guess I'll just keep my off farm job for what 15-25 more years. Its the only way I can make ends meet and still build a BBF or two. LOL

Later Mark

Well heck Mark, don't that have a grant for that kind of problem? That's what my one of my uncles always tells the other non farmer uncle to get a raz out of him. Like, "I need a new snowmobile this year, I should be able to get a grant for that.." It's pretty funny when you are there.

Yeah, they have a program called Agristability. It's a joke. You pay 300 bucks admin fees every year, do about 20 hours of paper work, and get nothing. It's based on a 5 year average, and since the last 7 years have been a wreck, that's considered "normal". and they don't pay anything. I'm getting the same price for my calves this fall that I got back in 1979 when I started. And although the CDN dollar is the scapegoat right now, even if it was to drop down to 65 cents, the packers would come up with some other excuse to keep us at 500 dollar calves. I'm about done with the whole industry. Been working 35 years, and have zero saved up for retirement. That's why young guys like Mark can't get rid of us - we can't afford to retire!

man i wish i was cuttin beans or shellin corn but i dont have anything ready yet. was a late spring and a very cool summer nothing much happenen here. there are a few shellin corn at mid 20% moisture levels around here but i dont want to dry it. oh well just have to hit it really hard when its ready and hope to get away from too many break downs brad

Mark Laczo wrote:I guess I'll just keep my off farm job for what 15-25 more years. Its the only way I can make ends meet and still build a BBF or two. LOL

Later Mark

It seems kinda screwed up that you need a full time job to subsidize your farming!! I know lots of famers around here have to do that too. Thats why I didn't get into the farming thing....grew up in it but saw that there wasn't too much of a steady income.

Good luck with the harvesting.

Bill