About This Episode
Chris Barron reaches Trevor Thompson in the tractor in Saskatchewan, about an hour north of the Montana line, seeding canola behind a large drill. A typical start in his area is around May 1, and he is already more than 30 percent done, so the season is running early. It is also dry. He has 16 to 18 inches of moisture to start with, and expects roughly another 10 days of seeding to finish the crop.
Snow catch is what separates one field from the next this spring. Fields that held snow over the winter have something to work with; where the catch was poor, there is not much stored moisture. Locally the winter delivered, but across the province as a whole the snow ran below usual. Rain was in the weekend forecast, and Thompson calls that a real blessing rather than an inconvenience, which tells you how tight conditions are in his part of the province.
His rotation stays deliberately narrow. Thompson grows only durum wheat and canola and jokes that he follows the keep-it-simple theory rather than juggling the five, six or seven crops common further north. Across the province, feed barley has bought acres and wheat has picked up a few in the last month. Canola prices are the highest he has ever seen, yet canola acres are not up much, because canola on canola carries too much agronomic risk to chase the price.
“it's easy to sell when things are low and you get a little bit of a rally, you know it's time to sell. But when it just keeps going up, it's pretty tough, isn't it?”
— Chris Barron
Key Takeaways
Over 30 percent seeded by May 7 against a typical May 1 start, with about 10 days of seeding left.
He is starting with 16 to 18 inches of moisture, and snow catch over the winter is what decides which fields have it.
The province as a whole caught less snow than usual, even where local conditions were fine.
Thompson grows only durum wheat and canola on purpose, preferring to do two crops well over spreading across five or six.
Canola prices are the highest he has ever seen, but acres have not followed, because canola on canola carries too much agronomic risk.
Feed barley bought acres this spring and wheat picked up a few over the past month.
Full Transcript
Chris: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch and another crop update. I just got a text message from this crazy guy up in Canada and, uh, wanted to have Trevor introduce himself. And he is in Saskatchewan, Canada, just kind of north of Montana a ways. And he sent me a video of a pretty big drill out there behind the tractor. And I think you're in the tractor right now, aren't you, Trevor?
Trevor
Thompson: Yes, I am.
Chris: Yep, that's good, that's good. So how's it going? What are you up to? What are you planting right now?
Trevor
Thompson: Ah, things are going well. Early start to, uh, the planting this year. It's quite dry, uh, right now. We're planting, uh, canola and trying to meet the, uh, help meet the demand for, for that crop.
Chris: You're planting the big money crop right now.
Trevor
Thompson: Yeah, you know what, this is the most nervous I've been, uh, marketing in years because everything's so high and I'm— I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me.
Chris: Well, it's easy to sell when things are low and you get a little bit of a rally, you know it's time to sell. But when it just keeps going up, it's pretty tough, isn't it?
Trevor
Thompson: It's very tough, especially when it's not in the bin.
Chris: Yeah, exactly. So, uh, in the crop update here, tell me a little bit about, you know, your area. When do you guys normally start seeding and And you know, you said you're a little early and you're a little dry right now. How's things going and tell us a little bit more.
Trevor
Thompson: Typical start to seeding would be about May 1st. We're over 30% done already, so we've had a good jump on it. Wow. We have about 18, 16 to 18 inches of moisture to start with, and if you had crops that that we're able to catch more snow in the winter is basically, uh, the difference. If you never had good snow catch, you don't, you don't have a lot to work with right now.
Chris: Did you guys have much snow this winter? Because I know a lot of, like, North Dakota and, um, you know, you're north of Montana there. Do you guys have much snow?
Trevor
Thompson: Uh, locally we did, but overall as a province, not as much as usual.
Chris: Okay, so you're about 30% done. What do you— what, what's the— with it being dry like this, are you going to be able to continue seeding and get to 100% done? And how long is that going to take you yet?
Trevor
Thompson: Um, we would be another, um, 10 days.
Chris: Okay, what other, what other crops are you seeding yet this year?
Trevor
Thompson: We're just growing Durham. Durum wheat and canola.
Chris: Wow, only 2 crops. A lot of you guys up there like to grow 5, 6, 7 different things.
Trevor
Thompson: Uh, depends, depends on who you are. I'm, I'm not very smart, so I like the KISS theory, to keep it simple.
Chris: Yeah, well, yeah, that, that— there's a lot of merit to, uh, doing a really good job with a couple of things as opposed to trying to, to do a whole bunch of different things a lot of times. So what else is going on up there? Is there a lot of people changing some things on crops based on what these markets are doing, or is everybody pretty much sticking to their, their normal plans?
Trevor
Thompson: I think, uh, feed barley has bought a lot of acres. Uh, canola prices are the highest basically I've ever seen, and yet the acres aren't up as much as a person would would think. I think it's mainly just rotation. You, you can't do canola on canola effectively. There's too much risk and agronomic risk in that. So, and while wheat— I think wheat's been buying a few acres, uh, the last, last month here too.
Chris: Okay, sounds good. Anything else cooking? You guys got rain in the forecast coming or anything that's going to slow you down, or is it going to just be hammer down until you're done?
Trevor
Thompson: Uh, we sure hope we get rain in the forecast. This weekend we're supposed to, uh, to get some rain, so that would be a real blessing.
Chris: Okay, cool. Well, anything else I didn't ask or anything else you need to report from Canada? You got your mask on in the tractor, I imagine.
Trevor
Thompson: Yeah, I always, always prepared. Yeah, I, I look better for that.
Chris: It sounds like if we want to come from the U.S. to come see you guys, we're going to have to have a passport. Is that right?
Trevor
Thompson: You know what, I quit listening to that a long time ago. I couldn't tell you what— I don't know anymore. It changes so frequently, I'm not even sure.
Chris: Yeah, well, we want to get back up there and see you guys, but we don't seem like we're very welcome. So we'll keep calling you and trying to get these crop reports and see what you guys are thinking on markets. And hopefully eventually we can all get together in person here one of these days.
Trevor
Thompson: Wouldn't that be nice? Yes, I agree.
Chris: Yes, it would. Any last final comments from you from the, from the fields of Canada?
Trevor
Thompson: No, no, things are, things are good. Um, let's just hope things get back to normal soon.
Chris: That's right, will do. Well, hey, you be safe out there, Trevor, and we really appreciate your, uh, um, contribution to the crop updates.
Trevor
Thompson: Sounds good, anytime.
Chris: All right, that's Trevor Thompson. He is up in, uh, up in Saskatchewan. It's just north, about an hour north of Montana, to give you a little perspective where he's at. So again, thanks for listening everybody. We'll catch you again next time on a Crop Date on the Ag View Pitch.