Brent Genest says it takes discipline in the field, along with a good eye for grain, to prevent bad grain from ruining good samples.
“Before I came back to the farm, I was a grain buyer for 20 years with UGG and then with Pioneer at Rosetown,” he said.
“I learned a lot from farmers hauling grain to me. You can sure tell when the combine operator goes through a low spot and when he leaves them alone. You get an eye for that as soon as you see the sample.”
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He said the natural urge is to go through those low spots because producers don’t want the hassle of going back to get them later.
“But it’s worth the extra time and effort to cut out the bad acres.”
He said 2004 was typical of a bad year. He combined around the low spots and came back to get them later once the good grain was harvested. On some fields, he combined too close to the low spots. As soon as he realized it, he segregated that hopper and binned it with the other marginal grain.
“As it turned out, some of the low spots had not been hurt at all,” he said.
“It was really nice wheat. We could have easily put the combine through if we had known how good it was. But some of it was really bad. It would have ruined our samples. It’s not worth the risk of running through those spots and mixing bad grain in with good grain. You can turn your whole field into Canada Feed.
“I look at samples guys show me and they say they’re getting Canada Feed for it. So I tell them, ‘you know, they’re not giving you a break on this sample. There’s an opportunity with this wheat to upgrade it and put some serious money in your pocket.’ “
