Many thanks again to all our entrants so far for sharing their stories. Read their reports below, and check out the details and rules for our free draw at the end of this piece. — Editor
May 11 to May 18
Planting of fruit crops has just finished south of Yorkton. Even with the good drying days, the ground is holding a great deal of moisture. We hope to plant potatoes late next week if the warm, sunny weather holds. — Yorkton, Sask., May 16
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Planted my corn on April 24. Ground temperature was a little cold still at this time, but all the magazines I read said to get your corn in as soon as the ground was ready. The neighbour said "You’re crazy, the ground’s too cold." Planted corn needs to be in 50 F dirt to germinate; my ground was at 46 F. Corn is up, looking good; took full two weeks to come up. Beans are now planted too; did them today, May 15. We try to plant early to get the full-season growth for the plants. Last year we planted between rains and got lucky; this year, we’ve been drier this spring. This is all I have; no winter wheat this year. Around my farm there are still empty fields, but it won’t be long; as long as the rains hold off the farmers are hard at it. I figure in another week all the fields in my area will be done. — Merlin, Ont., May 15
We started seeding barley Saturday, May 12 only because (name withheld) had decided to cultivate the field to dry it out a bit before putting the air seeder in it. It is going well. We just pray that the rain forecasted stays away. –– Kelvington, Sask., May 15
Seeding has gone very well here (and) we are down to our last 10 per cent: a half section of canola and a half of soybeans. Conditions are very good to excellent, especially compared to last year. Fencepost to fencepost seeding! Optimism abounds! –– Brandon, Man., May 15
We started April 24 in excellent conditions, completing our peas and half of our durum by early May. We were then shut down by about three inches of rain over a week or so. We started again on Saturday and now have 5,500 acres in, a little over 50 per cent. Field conditions are very wet but are drying quickly. We have winter wheat, malt barley, peas, most of our durum and some canola in. Given the weekend forecast, we are going as hard as we can. More rain could cause many acres to go unseeded. — Fillmore, Sask., May 15
FREE DRAW: SEEDING?
Let us know BY EMAIL if you’re still seeding. We’d love to hear more about when you started, where you are, why you’re going now, what you’re seeding, how far you are along and whether your field conditions have been slowing you down.
OR, if you’re NOT seeding, let us know why, and when you hope to get out on the field — or give us an idea of what the field conditions are like in your area.
Seeding or not, if you’ve got a good photo from your area, we’d sure like to see those too; let us know the date, location and what’s being seeded (or not).
Your photos and/or reports will be entered in weekly draws, the next of which will be held Friday, June 1.
Where to Send Email: To send email, click HERE.
The Prizes: You can win a stylish, collector’s-item cap. This contest began with three each with the Country Guide, Grainews and Canadian Cattlemen logos, plus three each with the second-most-recent Manitoba Co-operator and Alberta Farmer Express logos and, for good measure, a couple of caps from the former Canola Guide.
We’ll give away up to four caps per weekly draw until 16 are gone, and keep the 17th one. Once all the caps of a certain brand are mailed, they’re gone — so when you enter the draw, be sure to let us know your first, second and maybe third choice of cap. We cannot guarantee that the caps winners receive will be any of their choices.
Rules and Disclaimers: This contest is NOT intended to encourage or induce entrants, or anyone else, to start seeding or to undertake any work other than sending email and/or taking photographs.
Whether they win a cap or not, we would like to publish some of the emails and photos we receive. Entries in the cap draw MUST include your first and last name and exact postal address with postal code — but we will only name your town, when or if we publish your email or photo.
If you don’t want to be identified, please keep in mind that we will NOT blur faces or black out any identifying features in photos.
Emails that provide no name or postal address, or that provide no valid information at all for the purposes of this contest (for example, "We’re not seeding yet because we don’t grow crops, LOL" or "Not seeding cos Im not a farmer ;P") will be excluded from the draws at the editor’s discretion.
Weekly draws will take place each Friday at 5 p.m. CT (Winnipeg time) until 16 caps have been won. Individual email entries will be assigned numbers for draw purposes.
Eligibility: This draw is open to all Canadian residents, ages 18 and older, excluding residents of Quebec.
Limit: One entry per day per email address.
Privacy Policy: Submitting an e-mail request through this website entitles you to receive correspondence from Farm Business Communications. If you send us an e-mail message, we may retain that message and your e-mail address, as well as any response we send you. From time to time we may use email as a way to keep in touch with our existing customers and other interested individuals.
Receiving correspondence is optional. You may opt out of being included in our mailing list, even after granting prior permission, by sending an e-mail request to our privacy officer. If you prefer to contact Farm Business Communications by regular postal mail, please write to: Privacy Officer, c/o Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H OH1, or phone 204-944-5765.
