The Grainews farmer panel: New and improved

Farmers talking to farmers is one of Grainews's original mandates. This is the still the purpose behind the "farmer panel" Lee Hart puts together for us each issue. But we want to make this panel bigger and better and encourage more farmers to participate.

If you're interested in taking part in the panel — in which Lee asks farmers like you some question about seed choices, machinery set ups, or crop production practices — please send Lee an email. This won't take much of your time. Lee might call you only one or two or three times a year, and the call will only take 10 minutes or so. 

In your email to Lee, please include your hometown, your home phone number and your cell phone number, if you have one. Also, I'd like a digital photo. If we can add some of your bright, shining faces to the page, that'll make it even better.

Thanks in advance. 

Big rains in Manitoba

I talked to a few Manitoba farmers today. My brother got two to three inches on his farm at Hartney on Monday night, so his harvest has been on hold the past couple days. Most of the province got some rain in that system, but it varied widely. Grainews columnist Andrew DeRuyck got only four tenths. (They've been having some phenomenal yields around Swan Lake, by the way.) Tom Kieper at Russell heard on the news that Alonsa, which is on the west side of Lake Manitoba, got 11 inches! If you know anyone in that area, please ask them to email me. I'd like to know what 11 inches in three hours looks and feels like. I hope their crops are OK, but it's hard to imagine they could be.