Well I think we are officially done with trying new toys on the farm. After our spending spree of 2013/14 we have put a spending freeze on capital purchases, so not sure why we have so many new pieces on the farm. I suspect the sales are a bit slow at the dealers so they are trying to get things out to the farms in hopes someone falls in love and adds it to their fleet. 

I’m seeding the field across the road from home (dubbed George’s because it was Uncle George’s originally) and it was a field we ran a high speed disc machine over in the fall to try it. The field is in great shape with no wet spots on it. I was thinking that was the key but when I get to the line and look at Randy’s  (the neighbor) ‎I see his looks dry as well and it wasn’t touched except with a harrow in the fall. So much for that theory. Interesting to see how it germinated compared to an unworked field right beside it (dubbed norman’s, you guessed it).We are, we’ll I am at least, all about trying different things to see if they pay. Maybe the accountant in me or my thirst for knowledge, but I need to prove to myself something is worth while before adopting it. For instance we are now treating all our canola with a product called Jumpstart, a phosphate enhancer. We tried it in trials for 4 years before getting conclusive results that indicated there was a net $ return by doing it.Hence why all the demo’s.  

We are getting into our groove it seems. I’m spending endless hours in the cab seeding and Lane running crazy between sprayer, harrows and trucks. Josh is helping out a lot as well treating seed and filling trucks and all the odd jobs around the yard that keep us rolling. We are pushed over the 1/3 mark and knocking on the 1/2 way mark. Our peas are likely just about out of the ground (which is not great with snow and freezing in the forcast). We have soft white wheat in and 4 quarters(160ac each) of barley. Josh came out this afternoon and in true Nascar pit stop fashion we switched over to canola and so far have 80 ac in as I write this. Lane had all the fertilizer blended and ready for me to load so that is how we got up and running so fast. Seeding conditions really couldn’t be better on this field for the canola. We have a dry surface with moisture just underneath making it an excellent seed bed to lay the seed into.  The forecast is for snow overnight and with this 90mph wind (that only southern Alberta is supposed to get) sure could blow something in. It is out of the Northeast so has cooled it off outside. In true Lance style I only put in 5 bags of seed in the protection of the yard and with the use of the the front end loader so now have to get my lovely wife to brave the wind and cold and come pick me up so I can hand bomb another 8 bags in to keep me running for the night. Someday I will learn or just get an air tank with those fancy new “bag lifts”, but still won’t protect me from the wind. Might go a little late tonight if they are forecasting snow so I can sleep in tomorrow, but my luck i’ll just have to get up and keep going, which would be okay too!