I have an addiction. Well, the farmer in me has an addiction. To some extent, it is suffered by most farmers I know. And, starting around Halloween, it ends for a few months.
I am in the final days of harvest. After rolling the dice in May, I finally get to see them stop tumbling.
But that isn’t the addiction. It isn’t a risk and reward type of issue. It is a seasonal pattern of behaviour.
From April to November, the first thing I do every morning, once I have checked my email to make sure the daily WP newsletters we send out to you are functioning properly, is to check the weather. OK, maybe the email is an issue too, but luckily it never stops.
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Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
Many folks like to hear a weather forecast. “Do I need an umbrella, a sweater, a coat?” Or, if you are in transportation or construction, “what are my daily needs for work?”
My farm addiction to weather involves something a little more.
On the internet I check the local forecast, often with two weather services. Then I turn to the North American jet stream map, followed by a look at weather radar for Western Canada.
I make a trip to the prairie regional weather satellite map, which is visual from mid-May to September and otherwise is infrared. Then I visit U.S. maps showing weather predictions for grain growing areas in the parts of the world that most directly affect our markets.
And here is where the addiction really takes hold. I already know what the day is going to be like, and the likelihood that the rain I want or don’t want will reach the farm. I now want to know what is happening on other farms, including South America and Australia. A few times each week I feel the need to look at Eastern Europe and Russia.
And once the crop is off, I stop, cold turkey. Is it cold in Turkey? Don’t care.
We have a weather page in the back of this paper. Do you use it? Either way, let me know if it still serves you. I check my email year around at mike.raine@producer.com.
