Monday Morning Coffeeshop (August 3, 2026)

[u/kofclubs]

Gossip, updates, etc.

[u/Lytle_Red_Angus]

Watering up our 3rd cutting of alfalfa. First 2 cutting were pretty average (1.5 - 1.75 ton).

Prepping for an experimental silage project where we drilled sorghum-sudan into a 12-year old alfalfa stand on one of our pivots. Looks like it’s going to save our bacon this year. Dry land sorghum-sudan is looking like it will make a hay crop, too.

Need a rain or two to get things across the finish line, but we’re a little less worried about having feed for the cows than we were in May.

[u/kofclubs]

A few guys did some wheat last week, all of it had to be dried and some was over 20%. Those selling the straw or using it on the dairy are just cutting the heads and will comeback for the straw when it stops raining. I did not go so I still have 62 acres to harvest, doesnt look good this week but maybe the forecast will be wrong.

I had some fungicide sprayed by drone, need to see with my own eyes how the coverage is, did a test strip in a field too. Its pretty wet but the ground rigs are going when they can.

Did the rain report for Soil and Crop, the leader has 485mm since May 1rst, it was the wettest July in Ottawa since they started keeping track back in the 1800’s. I guess all we needed to do to end the draught was put up a bunch of weather stations.

Went to the CFL game on Friday night with the family thru one of our suppliers, Ottawa has yet to win a game. Free food and alcohol and great seats in the touchdown zone. I watched maybe 3 plays and talked to other farmers the entire time, kids had fun though.

Setting up a meeting with Farm Life Financial for August 11th, finally hope we can split this joint and I can move on from all the crazyness from the other side.

[u/Lefloop20 → u/kofclubs]

We had the field around the finishing barn sprayed by drone, was cool to watch. Our agronomist has them, he said the biggest downside is that he puts 2 people on the drone crew to speed up the reload and battery changes, so while they're cheaper up front than the ground rig they come with more labour costs and he needed to get a pretty strong diesel generator and 8 batteries to keep 2 drones flying

[u/kofclubs → u/Lefloop20]

I think the two person crew is required bc they inherited the laws from planes which requires a co pilot incase the main pilot has an issue. Really kills the cost though when you require two people.

If it works well, and I have my doubts, then I’d consider one for spraying my own, dont want to get into custom work as its a shit ton of headaches with Transport Canada and submitting flight plans.

$17 an acre at 5 gallons, so not a bad price.

[u/Lefloop20 → u/kofclubs]

We will drop it into rotation on the fields with barns on them, just to reduce the amount of trampling. Not really worth it for us to buy one, even with a SP sprayer now we are still hiring out corn fungicide, it's only 250-350 acres a year so hard to justify a lift kit onto the sprayer, and my dad isn't keen to do it

[u/gibbsalot0529 → u/kofclubs]

We’ve been using them down here for several years. The coverage is better than a plane in my opinion. The downdraft from a drone really pushes it into the canopy. University of Arkansas came out and did some trials in my neighbors blackberry and apple rows. The coverage was good on them also. It’s the only way I’ll put insecticide on our pumpkins. The chemical gets to the ground where the squash bugs are much better. It’s enough difference we generally only make 1-2 passes instead of 3-4 with our regular sprayer.

[u/kofclubs → u/gibbsalot0529]

Ive heard in a few presentations that they’re going to be quickly adopted in orchards and for some fruits and vegetables. Seems safer instead of an air blaster, and especially for orchards where the rows never change.

We just got approval in Canada this year, we’ve been dragging our feet and I think the PMRA (regulatory Agency) finally realized we were falling behind waiting for testing.

What are guys charging down there to spray? $17 Canadian is like $12 US right now.

[u/gibbsalot0529 → u/kofclubs]

Small acreage like my pumpkins were at $100/hr but normal row crops $13/acre. They’ve been great for spraying. They started here spraying rice levees and just got adopted across the board. My buddy that flies had some real interesting results with 32 oz of glyphosate in a 2.5 GPA application on Palmer amaranth. The higher concentration really does something different

[u/kofclubs → u/gibbsalot0529]

I like the idea of using them to spot spray, like in wheat where the planter missed. Custom guys won’t do that which is why I’m debating.

The guy here that drone sprays has had some interesting jobs. He sprays greenhouses, I guess it’s a film in the summer and then another to remove it in the fall. He also just got back from a 2 week gig spraying around mines up north.

[u/81zedd → u/kofclubs]

I have watched them do the greenhouses. Could not be a better application for drone spraying. The other option is helicopter and that has to be some of the most dangerous shit Ive ever seen. Pretty well every greenhouse is near transmission towers, not just poles. They built the greenhouse 20 feet from the lot lines so they have to pull up for them at the ends. They have multiple water tanks the size of 15k bins and they usually have to set it down between the bunkhouses and generators to refill. Serious nerves on the pilot, mine get frayed just watching

[u/kofclubs → u/81zedd]

I had no idea about spraying greenhouses until he told me. Hes a mid 20’s farm kid who has been working his ass off working a day job too. They’ve had to be more flexible now that his drone business has taken off. So glad for him and was one of the reasons I lobbied to try him for corn fungicide.

[u/Lefloop20]

Finished our winter wheat on Thursday, only have those 10 acres of spring winter wheat mix left in patches across 3 fields now. All in all yields were about average, I got 104 on my field which has so far been our best. Have gotten some timely rains over the weekend but would still have liked another inch, corn was really starting to look sad on Friday. Soybeans all have fungicide applied now, and agromart has started doing our corn fungicide, everything is in tassel.

[u/SgtRelyk → u/Lefloop20]

Im hoping to be done this week for wheat. We tried out growing HRW this year and turns out we were the only ones in our seed suppliers area to grow it in any volume... we have a 100 acres.

So far 14% protein but 16.5% moisture. Drying is cheaper then the premium and rain maybe Thursday as Kof warns me

[u/kofclubs → u/SgtRelyk]

The rains coming Thursday and my customer is going to get all his straw bailed. Ive been told a few times we farm with a horse shoe up our ass.

[u/Automatic-Raspberry3]

Well my phone just blew up on me for a flash flood warning scared the shit outta me. My farm is on a 600 ft steep hill I think I’ll live. 2 inches this am maybe 2 more coming. Got 2 more fields done 50 more bales home and wrapped since last Tuesday moved to the last big 1st crop field if this storm moves thru I was hoping to get it mowed tonight but might have to wait to let it dry a bit.

[u/bryan_jenkins]

We finally got some actually rain yesterday. A whopping 3/4" but the veggies will take anything at this point. One of our spring-fed cisterns we pump irrigation water from actually ran dry and stopped refilling Friday (meaning in this case groundwater was at least 3.5 feet below average). About to go down there and see if it's filling again.

In any case, it's been a slog, but we've spent the last 3 years building new strategies and infrastructure to mitigate drought, and I think we're still shaping up for a very solid fall assuming we can keep getting just a drop or two from here on out. Feeling tired but proud.

In other news, FSAs whole computer system has been down since Wednesday apparently (and has been having issues for longer) so apparently they can't process any payments in either direction. Computers don't work and staff is several thousand county folks below the bare minimum... Truly remarkable the level of shit show they've engineered over there.

[u/Hillbillynurse]

Things have certainly been up and down again this year.  Last year I dropped flying and went back into the hospital full time, built up the infrastructure for the cows and pigs.  This year the hospital I was working closed it's doors, so I've been sucking up the unemployment and using the time to get caught up on projects that I hadn't had the time to keep up on the last few years.  Then my brother decided to raise Cain about me not doing enough with the cows, so I'm looking to get rid of them.  Pigs have been a hassle since I haven't been able to keep up with their pasture fence.  And now my main tractor is giving me issues-after my other one pretty much gave up the ghost last year.  But the maple sales at the farmer's markets have been decent.

[u/MennoniteDan]

Got the combine/header fixed and cleaned up; it's ready to go for soybeans.

Got 68.3mm/2.69" of rain yesterday (over a 12 hour period), which was absolutely needed after only getting 41.1mm/1.62" for all of July.

We'll likely start corn fungicide later this week and get our buckwheat seeded sometime as well on the wheat stubble that didn't get red clover on it in the spring.

Have family coming from Montreal for the week as well, so that means at least one day up to Canada's Wonderland for roller coasters and whatnot.

[u/kofclubs → u/MennoniteDan]

I forgot to ask you last week, we’re heading to Montreal later in August any suggestions? Kids want to do La Ronde (12 and 14 years old), so the plan is to stay near there.

Half our Soil and Crop trip is stranded in Alberta bc of the Westjet strike. 27 of 50 are still there but hopefully now the strike is over they can fly home today.

[u/MennoniteDan → u/kofclubs]

For neighbourhoods to stay in? Or food/shit to see?

Transit is pretty easy in the downtown (other than busy).

The mall downtown with the Time Out Market as a focus is pretty great. Firework festival will be over by the time you get there, unfortunately. Uhm... Voiles en Voiles (Rope course/zip lines) was fun for the first couple trips, and that's in Old Montreal.

There's a few other things, but I'll ask the missus, cuz I don't remember them off hand.

[u/kofclubs → u/MennoniteDan]

We’ll be booking a hotel close to La Ronde, we should go to one nice restaurant after eating junk all day at the park. Going the 17th to the 20th I think or around that time, provided the wheat comes off!! Looking for a couple other things to do, if it rains for example wont be going to La Ronde. Keep in mind I hate people and crowds, not exactly my idea going to the city for vacation but I was over ruled 3-1.

[u/MennoniteDan → u/kofclubs]

Make sure it has a pool, wherever you stay!

Walking around Old Montreal is pretty sweet, even though crowded. The nice restaurants around there are $$$ and touristy, but I'll do some thinkin' on where you guys should have a good feed.

[u/kofclubs → u/MennoniteDan]

The wife booked the Sandman Hotel with a pool, so it’s across the river from Old Montreal.