Three prairie farmers say that aside from some slight tweaking, they will stick to rotations in 2009, as will their neighbours.
“It’s status quo, is what I’m hearing,” said Stan Jeeves, who operates a mixed farm near Wolseley, Sask.
He plans to plant one-quarter of his acres to canola, one-quarter to peas and half to cereals, a decision guided more by agronomics than crop prices.
“I don’t follow the market by switching acres,” said Jeeves.
That was the prevailing sentiment among all three farmers interviewed for this story.
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Doug McBain of Cremona, Alta., plans to continue with his rotation of dividing his land evenly between feed barley, malting barley, canola and timothy hay.
“It’s just stay the course,” he said.
Rob Pettinger, a farmer from Elgin, Man., is sticking with wheat and canola, just like he did in 2008.
“We won’t deviate from (the rotation) too much at all.”
However, each producer said they will make minor adjustments within their rotations to squeeze a few more dollars from their farms.
Jeeves plans to plant 25 percent more wheat and 25 percent less barley in the cereals portion of his rotation.
“I think wheat has the better market outlook.”
The scuttlebutt in his community is that farmers may plant a few more flax acres, but no crop is really calling out.
“Often there is a crop that is the darling out there. I don’t see that this year,” he said.
McBain plans to seed a little less malting barley and a little more feed barley, unless the market outlook changes before spring.
Pettinger said he will slightly reduce canola this year because he was high on the oilseed in 2008. Besides, he believes wheat may be a bit of a sleeper in 2009.
“Price-wise, I think it might be as good a bet as anything,” he said.
Pettinger’s plans weren’t quite so cut-and-dried back in September when urea was selling for far more than it is today.
“We were considering all options at that time,” he said.
While most input costs have plummeted, glyphosate is selling for more than it was a year ago. If prices stay high, it would eventually influence Pettinger’s zero till practices.
“At some point you may say, ‘well, we either have to go back to conventional tillage or try summerfallow or something like that.’ But not this year.”
McBain said tumbling fuel and fertilizer prices in recent months aren’t factoring into his seeding plans but they will change the amount of inputs he uses in 2009. He is considering applying an extra 10 to 15 pounds of nitrogen.
All three growers are committed to their seeding plans. There would have to be a substantial market development over the next two months to change their minds.
“We’ve already bought the canola seed. We’ve bought the fertilizer. We’re ready to go here,” McBain said.
According to the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, since Sept. 1 the southern Prairies have had good moisture, but much of Alberta, western and northeastern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba have received below average precipitation. That could affect seeding plans.
However, McBain isn’t too worried about spring soil moisture. He recently flew from Winnipeg to Calgary and observed a landscape that was white with snow when he took off and white when he landed.
With snow cover across the Prairies, he believes most places will have adequate moisture heading into spring.
“Everything looks like it should have a good start anyway,” he said.
“And then we’ll see what June brings.”
