CHIPMAN, Alta. – Despite the high cost of seeding a crop and the low prices he expects to be paid after harvest, Jeff Bork hooked his harrows to his tractor on a warm, sunny day at the end of April and pulled into the field for another season of farming.
“It’s good to get out,” Bork said.
His reasons for returning for another year are simple:
“My last bit of optimism and my love of farming.”
Down the road at Vegreville, Ken Farion is also out in the field harrowing stubble that was lodged and tangled last fall.
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From what he’s seen so far, the moisture for seeding looks good and should make a decent seed bed. Even the weeds were turning green and poking through the stubble.
“The moisture is very close to the surface,” he said. “We had a great snow in March that gave us good moisture.”
While it’s good to finally get in the field, he said the real excitement of spring will begin when he starts seeding peas, which he expected to start this week.
“The real rush comes when you put the seed in the ground.”
He’s counting on a price rally to carry his excitement through to harvest. Prices may not look good now, but he remembers 1994, when by harvest prices had doubled from spring.
“We have to remember our livelihood is to feed the world.”
South of Vegreville toward Holden, Vern Hovland had stopped at the edge of his field to clean off roots and wet stubble that had collected in his cultivator spikes.
Before he begins seeding, Hovland must first finish banding fertilizer into his fields. He said the late winter snow brought good moisture for seeding.
“It’d be nice if a person could get a little more money for your product,” he said before jumping back on the tractor.
Jim Broatch, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture’s Ag Info Centre, said farmers are typically optimistic in the spring.
“It is warm. There is moisture. The potential of everything looks pretty decent,” he said.
“The guys are eternally optimistic, but deep down I’m sure they’re hoping that crop commodity prices
improve.”
