JUST LIKE in Scotland, it’s been an up and down year in Mantibo.

In my January article, I explained our marketing system and what the major problems or influencies are that we all as farmers have to try and work around – like the weather, currency fluctuations, import tariffs and scare politics. So far this year, we have had all four of these at work.

We finished seeding at the end of May – which is kind of normal for Manitoba – and mid-June is the ‘deadline’ to qualify for crop insurance cover. In two weeks we seeded more than 2800 acres of soya, wheat, canola and flax, without too many late nights – this averages 200 acres per day.

Our total rainfall up until the end of seeding had been a third of an inch. It was probably the driest we have been since starting farming here in 1996 and surface moisture was about zero, but because we had a reasonable snow cover up to early April, we were mostly seeding into some moisture.

We have also had a lot of high winds for most of the spring too which sucks the moisture out of the ground. Then, on the May 27, when Douglas had just finished the last field, we had a thunder storm with more than two inches of rain. Then we had a total of 6.8-inc hes by the end of June, so the crops are jumping. It is really amazing here to see fields of hard red spring wheat which were seeded second week in May are now heading out on July 1, and canola (oilseed rape) seeded a week later in almost full flower.

Some folk who started seeding early have had to reseed their canola. The seed treatment for protection against flea beetle only stays effective for three weeks, so if you seed early into colder ground, the seed is too slow in germinating and at growing, meaning the protection wears off before the plant vigour beats the flea beetle.

The beetles can decimate a crop and, with seed costing around $60 per acre, reseeding is expensive but you still need to have a crop to harvest.

Our policy of buying all our fertiliser as straights in advance has really paid of this year as the 46-0-0-0 which we paid $385 per tonne for in October was costing $507 in May, a saving of $121 per tonne.

I have just finished some of our input costs this year and so far on seed, fertiliser, inoculants for beans and crop insurance of $14.50 p/a, we have invested $69.50 per acre in red spring wheat, $121 in canola and $118 in soyabeans. On top of that will go fuel, chemicals, land taxes of around $9 per acre, machinery depreciation etc and, if we’re lucky, a wee bit left over for the farmer.

Our policy of contract pricing around 20% to 30% of new crop by end of seeding is up to date. The prices we have already locked for September/October delivery are red spring wheat at $257/tonne (it’s now $220, down $37); canola at $485 (now $467, down $18); and soya at $415 (now $368, down $47).

So, although we are sorry prices are falling we have at least protected some of our initial sales.

China and the US are still arguing over tariffs on US soya, which is worrying. But, at the end of the day, the global market is a pool – if China sources soya from elsewhere, it’s still removing product from the world market which we can divert to fill.

South America and some of the US are having weather problems and according to early US Department of Agriculture crop reports, winter wheat was looking the worst in 50 years.

Also, 30% of the western prairies in Canada were under a significant drought threat, so because of these fairly widespread conditions, a lot of acres could have shifted to alternative, more drought-tolerant crops – soya beans, especially, need plenty of moisture). This meant that until the seeded acres reports came out, no one could be too sure which way the markets would go. Then it rained. The USDA seeded acres report just came out on June 29 and has wheat looking good and a lot of corn acres switched to soya which dropped bean futures down by over $1 a bushel, or $47 per tonne.

That makes us even more happy to have locked in approximately 40% of our potential crop at what now looks like a high.

Our cows and calves went out to pasture a month ago. Similar to insuring our crops, we can take out an insurance on our cattle which protects livestock farmers from fluctuations in calf prices.

This enables producers to purchase protection against unpredictable down-turns in average market prices for calves, feeders and fed cattle. The government body uses the latest cattle prices from auction markets and electronic sales data to calculate the weekly settlement prices and if there is a significant down-turn, you are covered.

Our son, Donald, has the weed spraying finished, apart from a second spray of glyphosate on the soya to catch any late germinating weeds, then it will be disease control.

And our other son, Douglas, has just started cutting our 200 acres of our mainly alfalfa hay, of which we sell a good proportion.

Farmers over here are pretty much the same as in Scotland. We complain about the weather and prices, but get on with the work. But, although there is a similarity between farmers, there is quite a difference here in the public’s perception of farmers.

Here we seem to be more appreciated. After all, in the small towns and even the larger cities on the prairies, a large percentage of the population is only one or two generations removed from the farm, while a large section of industry and ancillary services are dependent on agriculture.

Also, farming gets lots of news coverage and many adverts on TV and radio are aimed at the industry, with hourly weather and market reports. Country music on the radio has songs like ‘She thinks my tractor’s sexy’ or ‘Drivin’ down the road in my International harvester’ and, of course, every one waves to everyone else.

A great way of keeping up to date is a visit to the local coffee shop. Every small town has one, where most of the local farmers and others meet most mornings, some for breakfast and some just for the coffee and the ‘craic’ – we discuss everything under the sun, but mostly farming.

I’m often reminded of the BBC’s Charlie Allan’s crack about ‘The biggest yield of wheat ever in Scotland being recorded on the steps of the Red Lion’. One of my pals here used to say ‘The two biggest ever yields of wheat in Canada was 1917 and next year’ but, seriously, you can pick up a lot of useful free information and advice in the coffee shop. I would advise any immigrant farmers to be sure and go to your local café.

I have decided this year to step back a bit from the hard graft of farming, especially after reading the obituary of my great grandfather’s brother – Alec Wilson, of Craig Wilson Auctioneers). My second cousin, who like myself is researching our family tree, sent me this quote from the Kilmarnock Standard 1902: ‘The death has occurred of Mr John Caldwell, of Plowlands, Bogside, and Kilnford, Dundonald, in his 72nd year. He was out as usual at half past four on Tuesday morning in the harvest field where as boy and man he had spent many a busy day, where the grim reaper of death found the old man ripe for the sickle, and gathered him to the harvest of the Lord.’ Time for Davie smell the roses, I’m 77!

I hope that you all had a good ‘Heilan’ show’ and today (Friday) Jean and I will be at the local 4H (YFC) presentation night. Caldwell Farms sponsors its speech making competition as I will always be appreciative of what the Scottish Association of Young Farmers helped me when I was growing up.

I am glad that our two Canadian grandchildren, Liam and Christyna, are both in 4H. Good luck to Crossroads and district YFC on their 80th – go the ‘Roadies’!