Leroy Newman finished harvest last week
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Combines continue to roll in Alberta.
Producers are almost 59 per cent complete with the 2022 harvest, the Alberta Crop Report for Sept. 13 says.
But at least one farmer is done.
Leroy Newman, who farms about 4,000 acres of land near Gladys Ridge, Alta., finished harvesting his wheat, barley, canola and peas last week.
He’s pleased with how most of his crops turned out.
“We were surprised with the peas, they came out above average,” he told Farms.com. “The wheat was well above average, and the barley came out pretty good too.”
His canola, however, was “all over the place.”
“We had a 60-bushel swath that ended up being 20 bushels,” he said. “You’re sitting there asking yourself what’s going on.”
The weather is what caused the differences in yields.
The canola had difficulty adapting to the changing conditions, he said.
“It went from cold and dry, to wet and cold, and then to super-hot,” he said. “Everything canola hates. Then earlier in the season we had germination problems and insect issues. At one point in June, we didn’t think we were going to have a crop. Farming is a roller coaster but it’s what we do.”
In addition to crop and weather challenges, machinery challenges emerged too.
But because of a good dealer network, Newman’s equipment was back up and running sooner than later.
“We always anticipate problems with how many moving parts there are on the equipment,” Newman said. “We had some computer glitches and we had to wait for the technicians to come. And when we had a breakdown that needed a replacement part, they were great about finding us a part even though they couldn’t order the part because of supply chain backlogs.”