12 amazing things I saw on my road trip

A friend of mine who works on the oil rigs says he doesn’t like being out on the prairie because there is nothing to see. But I beg to differ. I just got back from an amazing road trip from Calgary to Neerlandia (north of Edmonton) and the drive there and back was like a carnival of attractions.

And of course being up in that Barrhead/Westlock area it is a no-brainer to begin with. It is well known it is an area where you can take 50 per cent germ test, 10-year-old, bin-run wheat seed, throw it on a gravel road and still get 65 bushels per acre — it is Nothing-But-Money Country. It is like Disneyland up there. 

So here is a sampling of some of the things I saw, this day:

• North of Neerlandia you will find Neeralta Welding operated by the Wierenga brothers who are now running the fabricating shop steady trying to keep up to orders for the Neeralta Grain Bagger. It is a extremely well built, 10 foot bagger (a 12 foot model will be introduced for 2012) that comes with an attached swing auger, and large 8’ x 10’ foot loading hopper. You can learn more about it at www.neeraltawelding.com.

• Not every pea field north of Edmonton looked this good, but Headline fungicide from BASF can no doubt take some credit for producing this excellent stand. The crop still had the odd flower, but it was loaded with pods so barring any serious weather events it should produce a very respectable yield.

• Craig Schmidt of Pioneer Seed did a great job of recommending P7213R hybrid corn to a grower/dairy farmer just north of Neerlandia. This field of the 2050 heat unit variety was standing about seven feet tall and weed free. Plenty of moisture in this area, though, as I had to pick my spot to cross the ditch.

• Here is the mystery photo of the day — what caused these less mature  strips in this field of canola. I saw several similar fields in the drive from Barrhead to Westlock and down to Edmonton. There was lots of variation in maturity in different fields but these strips made me think it had something to do with seeding or spraying. But that didn’t really make sense. And then I wondered if it had something to do with soil compaction. I have a Grainews cap for the first person who can give me a reasonable explanation for the strips.

• AC Foremost wheat isn’t a new variety by any means, but it looked to be performing well in this field near Westlock. Developed by Ron DePauw at Ag Canada in Swift Current, nearly 20 years ago, it is a high yielding,  shorter, early maturing wheat, with strong straw, good sprouting resistance and bunt resistance. Cyre Seeds of Barrhead is the local agent for this SeCan variety.

• Pentagon Farm Centre at Westlock had a good selection of new-to-you combines including Claas and Cat Lexion combines and New Holland combines. Yellow wasn’t the only color in the yard, but it was predominant there as well as at the Pentagon Farm Centre on Highway 2 near Red Deer.

• This is not a picture of Invigor canola (on the right). Not sure what it was exactly, but it was a dirty mess. It would be a good poster picture emphasizing the value of crop protection products, or perhaps the penalty of not controlling weeds. It might have even been a field of volunteer canola that never got the chemfallow treatment. Not far from there, (left photo) was this excellent field of Bayer CropScience’s Invigor 5440, released about five years ago. It is a medium height, high yielding variety, with yields about 135 per cent of check varieties. I found it interesting to note I saw many more full bloom fields south of Edmonton than I did north of Edmonton.

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• If you need a new-to-you air seeding system or combine header check out this Bourgault air seeder and Case IH, 25 foot header south of Westlock on Highway 41. It probably did its duty for this year and now it is time for  it to be re-homed. I think there was some land for sale just across the road from this equipment, so you could probably buy the whole package and be set up and ready to roll next spring. If you are interested in the machinery call 780-939-2132. (I get a finders fee).

• Two cereal herbicides near Leduc both seemed to perform very well. On the north side of the road was Dow AgroSciences Prestige, with three active ingredients for control of Canada Thistle, sow thistle and many other common broadleaf weeds in cereals. And, on the south side Bayer CropScience’s fairly new Tundra herbicide, which is an all-in-one formulation for grassy and broadleaf weeds. Both crops looked like they were doing very well.

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• And where is Captain Copper (Dr. Ieuan Evans) when you need him? I saw some excellent stands of wheat south of Edmonton but some had patches of lodging, which Ieuan over the years has maintained, is often a sign of copper deficiency in the soil. (Ieuan was a long time plant pathologist with Alberta Agriculture and is now a senior coach with AgriTrend Agrology). The untrained eye may blame this leaning crop on high winds and heavy rains, but I am going with the copper deficiency angle.

• I saw lots of hay on the trip — lots of brown hay in the country. It was a beautiful sunny day, but no one was baling by 2 p.m. although I saw a couple guys out raking. I noticed quite a few places using the bale wrap on large round bales, instead of twine. It may help with weathering a bit, but my brother-in-law who just started using a John Deere baler with wrapper this year says the big feature is time. He says he saves about two minutes making each bale with wrap instead of twine, which may not seem like a lot, but if you put up 500 bales that’s about 16 fewer hours and with 1000 bales it is 32 hours. Those could be important hours if you are rushing against the weather, or would just rather be doing something else.

• And when you get down in the Ponoka/Lacombe area I saw both fat cattle and horses doing well on pasture and in a feed yard. This yard of draft horses was south and west of Ponoka and the rainbow cattle herd looked to be doing very well on ample pasture near Bles Wold Dairy just west of Lacombe.