Stripper headers, supporting ag research and innovation, & canola acreage

I've always wondered why, why do we not see more stripper headers on the plains and the prairies? There are farmers using this tool to leave more cover on the ground, to conserve as much moisture as possible, reduce that soil erosion when it does get windy, as we know it does. But we just don't see as much as I would think we would, especially given some of the dry conditions where in some of these areas we're farming for drought 3 out of 4, 4 to 5 years. And as the heat turns up here in the back end of July, this is a question that has come to mind again. And if we are going to go with a stripper header, we need to make sure we have the right seeding tool as well to prevent any sort of hairpinning and get through all that cover that is left in that field that is not trash. It actually has value and really works into our total system that we're running on our farming operation. Today we're going to talk to two farmers, two brothers farming together in in northeastern Montana who are doing exactly this. How are they having success with it? What are some of the drawbacks and how do they get around some of those barriers to really have as much success possible in the drier climates? All today on RealAg Radio. In crop protection, you pay more for the brand or choose a generic and hope for the best. Life Scientific believes you shouldn't have to choose. Using reverse engineering science, we deliver performance you can trust at a price that makes sense. Visit lifescientific.com/north-america for products and retailers near you. It's time for RealAg Radio on Rural Radio Channel 147 on SiriusXM. RealAg Radio and RealAgriculture.com is your home for insight and analysis of the issues that are impacting your farm business. Let's get real and get connected with RealAg Radio. Welcome to RealAg Radio here on Rural Radio 147 SiriusXM. Shaun Haney, your host here on this Tuesday edition of the show. Thanks so much everybody for making RealAg Radio and Rural Radio 147 a big part of your workday. Of course, a huge shout out to everybody else who's listening out there on the RealAg Radio podcast or watching on YouTube. I hope you had yourselves a great weekend. Last week was a busy week. You know, usually we get to the back end of July and into August and the news flow is, is, is kind of slow. That has not been the case here in 2026, and don't really expect this week to be really any different. Tough day in the markets on Monday. Ouch, red. Ugly. Gotta be staying on top of that on a daily basis. We tried to figure out what to do with some of this '26 crop and yeah, gotta— it was really fun last week at Ag in Motion because got to talk to so many different growers. If you heard the Farmer Rapid Fire on Thursday, you kind of got a sense of that, how people are looking at their crops and this continued through the weekend, this continued idea, need a little bit more rain to finish this sucker or else we're gonna go backwards. Kind of a little bit like '24. That's the the, the, the closest parallel I think I can make where started out well, didn't finish because didn't get the moisture. And that's kind of where we are right now, I think, for a good part. And what a wild, wild weather scene in, uh, in Edmonton, Alberta over the weekend. Huge hail just outside of the city. I saw some pictures on X of, of that. And of course, a lot of footage from that Post Malone concert. That was Bonkers. It's just, yeah. And I think Edmonton's supposed to get another storm here this week. So it is the season of, you know, beautiful days in the prairies and then some wild wicked storms at night. And hopefully you're able to avoid that big white combine indeed, especially with some of that potential out in the field. Though some of those crops around Edmonton, they really don't look that good. So some of those farmers might be, they got some hail insurance, they're probably like, Not so bad if we get some of this, but maybe somebody's got some feedback on that. Hey, today on the show, we're, we're going to go a whole bunch of different directions. We got Serge Bui, who is the CEO of the Agri-Food Innovation Council. He's coming up here in a second. We're going to talk to two farmers, Brady and Bailey Bernsten. They are out of Medicine Lake, Montana. We're going to talk about some of the things they're doing on their farm agronomically, how no-till fits into that. And what they're doing from a, from a seeder setup to make it all happen, especially dealing with some of that trash, because they've got a stripper header as well, which I, I've always wondered why we don't see more stripper headers on parts of the Northern Plains and the Western Canadian Prairies. But I'm looking forward to bringing that conversation to you today. Greg Stamp, who's a seed grower outside of Enchant, Alberta, he is going to talk about, give us a bit of an update on how his hybrid rye is making out and how he's seeing some of those KWS varieties perform out in the field. Especially on the hybrid side. And then we've got some feedback from the audience as well. If you have any feedback on today's show, send me an email, [email protected]. You can also call or text the RealAg Feedback Line, 855-776-6147. Well, let's start off today's show by talking to Serge Bouy. He is the CEO of Agri-Food Innovation Council. How are we doing today, Serge? We're doing great. How about you? Man, I'm doing great. Uh, now, Let's start off the top by making sure our audience understands what is the Agri-Food Innovation Council? What does the organisation do? The role of the Agri-Food Innovation Council is really to advocate for agri-food research and innovation in Canada. We were founded in 1920, that's a little time ago, and we've continued really our mandate which is to really push for certain policies that support research and innovation in the country. Our members include universities, colleges, different organizations, NGOs, companies, etc., that have a real interest in research and innovation. Now, we continue to hear, and we heard it at the Halifax meeting that you and I were both at, the FPT meeting, that innovation is important, research is important. We have been going through a period of some cutbacks, which was expected. We'll see where this kind of goes from here. Do you feel that Canada is implementing and living up to some of the talk when it comes to research and innovation? It's a very good question. We have a lot of announcements that came through in the last, you year or so. Lots of discussions, lots of really good ideas. Implementation is a little bit more difficult, I would say. There are announcements of billions of dollars, wonderful. The proof will be in the pudding on how those things are implemented. And I think what's lacking is really a strategy and a direction, right? And I think this war of government approach where which is really lacking as well. So you've got Agriculture Canada that goes in a direction, Industry Canada does other things, various people do go in different directions. There are over 30 departments and agencies that support agri-food research and innovation, and I don't think they've ever met together as a group to discuss, okay, so how do we do this better? And on top of that, you've got the provinces and territories, and yes, you have a semi-annual meeting Does that mean that they actually coordinate activities? No, they don't, and that's a challenge, I think. That's concerning if this is the reality, Serge. What do we need to do to make it more coordinated and increase the level of execution of some of these big goals that the industry has? Well, you know, I think the first thing is to do a review of where we're at, and it doesn't need to be a 2-year review because those things get buried everywhere.. But we actually need to look at the productivity of the federal government's programs. We're not advocating for more money. We're advocating on the money that is being spent right now to be better spent. We don't need huge overhead being spent in Ottawa. We need more coordination on those things. So the first step is really stop, look, investigate what we're doing and how we're doing. Cut some programmes that may not be really performing well, merge other programs, look at the general direction where we're going, and make sure we're all going in the same direction. And that may mean making some choices on where we should be going versus where we're going presently, but at least have— take time to think rather than just announce things one after the other that may or may not actually be complementary. Otherwise, we're just kind of making headlines, right? You know, this money going here and doing this and everything's fantastic, but underneath the surface, it sounds like we've got some work to do. And that's my concern. I mean, you heard, I don't know if you heard, there was a Professor Sylvain Charlebois recently talking about the negotiations with the US on CUSMA and the agri-food saying, you know, where this looks like we're going all directions, where's the plan? And I'm saying, yes, there needs to be a plan somewhere in a direction, and I don't see it. I'm seeing great announcements, but I'm still not seeing a plan. So maybe there is a big master plan that none of us are aware, but when we talk to federal public servants, I'm not sure they know the plan either. So that's concerning to me and probably should be to you. Well, when both of us were at that meeting in Halifax, one of the topics or questions that we had talked about when I was moderating on stage was about, you know, would it help if we had more of a whole government approach And it was referenced to the Agricultural Policy Framework, and Tyler McCann from CAPI on the stage had said, well, I don't know if that's really the answer, and he explained why. You had sent me an email and said, you know, I think the whole government approach is really needed here. Why do you— I guess, what does whole government approach mean to you, and why do you believe that? Because I think everybody needs to have some coordination, and even on the APF, Agricultural Policy Framework, we do need to have discussion with all the departments and the agencies looking at what we're doing. Avoid duplication, avoid unnecessary overhead. So the whole government approach is really to bring all the departments and agencies that really have a role to play in this field and bring them together and really have a good discussion on, okay, so what is your role? What are you doing? Is this done really better by you versus another department? I'll give you a quick example. Global Affairs is involved in agriculture and food in various levels, including trade, you know, trade discussions. But they're also looking at new markets, they're also looking at supporting various discussions on that. That's wonderful. Should that be informing what Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is doing? Well, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has its own trade folks, and there may be directions that may be different between the two of them. Is there clear, close coordination? And there may be, or there may not be, and I'm not seeing it. And that's the concern when people are not seeing that close coordination between departments and agencies. And we should be hearing if, I don't know, in the Middle East they need this type of grain that we provide, or that we could better provide, and the trends are that it's going to grow quite significantly in the next few years. Well, maybe we should be at the table and we should be informed and our research and innovation should be targeted get it towards some of those markets. Just quick examples of, you know, the importance of having those discussions and everybody at the table. Curious, is this an issue at the ministerial level, like, or is this more of the working bureaucracy underneath not necessarily being integrated in this approach? I think it's both. I think it's great when you create a programme and an agency hears that, you know, the Prime Minister thinks food is important. Then they develop their own programme and then they develop their own bureaucracy around the programme and this is where you have a challenge. It's also a challenge at the agency head or ministerial level where the minister should really be pushing for better coordination between his folks and other people's folks. And this is why, you know, what we're advocating for is not new. In 2016, the Barton Report, Dominic Barton promoted the need for a very good discussion and a really good coordination. He actually talked about the Privy Council being in charge of a secretariat on agri-food, and with the Minister of Agriculture leading that, but to make sure that there would be better coordination. That was not implemented, and I think that's a loss. And it's been recognized, you will see it mentioned in different reports, The House of Commons Committee on Agriculture and Food mentioned it several times, so it is a loss for Canada. Yeah, you know, a lot of times we talk about the, you know, the size of the agricultural industry in Canada from a people perspective, and it really does punch above its weight economically compared to some other sectors. This does feel, as you described, something that is not allowing us to, I guess, work at optimum level. We're holding ourselves back, kind of trying to get out of our own way, and this seems like a simple hurdle, but I know it's not. I don't want to make light of it. Government working more integrated and having that whole government approach, it sounds pretty easy, but probably a little bit harder behind the scenes. I'm like, have we ever, have we ever done it really well? Was there a time when we did? I, you know, that's debatable. I think when we face a crisis, we really work well and fast. So I'll give you an example. The pandemic, you know, forget about the policies and the discussion about COVID and all those things, forget about that, but let's concentrate on what was done. Bureaucrats were sent home and told to work from home. I have never seen in Canada so many policies, programs, and various actions put in place so quickly, affecting and impacting so many people than during COVID Why? Because we had a crisis, we got organized, we moved forward, everybody was working for the betterment of the conditions of their fellow Canadians. Regardless of the opinion that one may have, we certainly can see that there were a whole bunch of things that got done. So I do think that a good crisis creates a need and shows that we get together and we we move forward and we can get things that no one else can do. Canada is a fantastic country, and when we are faced with a challenge, we take it and we create opportunities, and I think we need to get back to that and move forward on that. Great stuff. We've been talking to Serge Buis. He is the CEO of Agri-Food Innovation Council, the AIC. Serge, thanks so much for joining us here today. Thank you very much. Great stuff. Back on RealAg Radio, Rural Radio 147, SiriusXM, right after this. If lentils are in next year's plans, your weed control starts this fall. Precision Pack PF-100-0050 herbicide from FMC delivers systemic burndown of winter annual weeds plus extended residual control to help keep fields cleaner into spring. It's everything you need in a fall herbicide to help reduce early season weed competition during lentil establishment, while Precision Pack customised packaging makes mixing and handling simple. See your FMC retailer today and start next year's lentils with a cleaner field. Shaun Haney, your host here. Joining us right now, President and CEO of AGI, is Paul Brezwa. We focus a lot on voice of the customer, and voice of the customer can come from, again, our end users, our assemblers, our dealers. And through that voice of the customer, We typically get a better understanding of what are the needs that each of those groups feel are important, and then we prioritise those needs. Typically it comes to how do we get more capacity? How do we get more reliable equipment? How does maintenance become easier? How do we use less horsepower on our equipment? How does it become safer on the farm? And, you know, our digital business with regards to SureTrac and BinManager are great tools to use for farmers. Which we, again, we see a lot of growth, particularly in the U.S. and international markets, to manage storage, proper storage of those commodities that, as you know, can become very valuable if you market it correctly. The way a crop is harvested influences the conditions for next year's seeding. The K-Hart Raptor Stripper Header and Spyder Disc Drill are designed support low disturbance farming practises from harvest through seeding. Learn more by going to kheartindustries.com. And coming up here soon in the show today, we're going to be talking about that Spyder and the Stripper Header here, right just on today's program. So stay tuned for that. Hey, tonight is— or sorry, last night was the Agronomist, a fabulous discussion all about phosphorus. And phosphorus continues to be one of those fertilisers that is quite expensive. You know, last week I heard from a lot of growers, they're starting to lock in their nitrogen pricing on the '27 crop, but there is some hesitation on what to do on phosphorus because it is so expensive. So one of the things we can do is get the most of the phosphorus that we are putting in our soil and using on a yearly basis. Okay, and so go to our YouTube channel and tune in to last night's agronomist episode Les Cowell of Nutrien, as well as Kim Schneider from the University of Guelph, talking about application of phosphorus, getting the most out of it, and just, you know, really having it perform. Because if we're going to spend dollars on it, and we're spending a lot on it, we need to make sure we're doing it as productively as possible. You can find that at the RealAgriculture YouTube channel or at RealAgriculture.com. And if you are a CCA, you can get CCA CEU credits as well. For watching the show. So cheque that out, and just— Lyndsey does a great job hosting that program. You know, one of the things we just heard at a Surge was, you know, it can— it's concerning because, you know, his criticism is, is that it's not about the amount of money that's going to things like the policy framework and other programming focused on innovation, but it's also how that money is being organized, distributed, administered, and the lack of connectivity across different government departments. And that should be something that I think we should be expecting, we should be pushing for more, we should want that because if we have that, it allows us to perform, you know, execute at a higher level, like kind of what he was talking about there. And it's easy to say, hey, we need to have a whole government approach and we can, you know, just look at the Ag Ministers that were in that Halifax meeting. We got Ag Ministers from across the country including the federal Minister and again, Yes. Are they all connected and on the same page? Yes. And I think that's why people were saying we have all this momentum and there's unity. But the reality is behind the scenes, you actually have to have that happening. And that's some of the challenge that we currently have. Just look at something like interprovincial trade. There is not a time that premiers or ministers in different sectors of government get together and don't talk about interprovincial trade and how we we can unlock all of this increased business cross-province if we just lowered some of the interprovincial trade barriers. And then when it gets down to actually lowering those interprovincial trade barriers, that's where we lose the steam. Then we don't have momentum. So we have momentum on the talking points. We don't necessarily have— we don't have momentum on the action part of the equation. If you're a long-time listener to this show, you know this is one of our greatest criticisms, is Canada has great aspirations, but needs to be more profound and work at a higher level when it comes to the actual action part of some of these topics. So I thought things that Serge said there were not necessarily surprising, they were just kind of confirming some of the things that I think are some of the perceptions that are out there, knowing that, hey, listen, we can, we can do better here, we can strive for more, and having that connectivity across government departments is one of those things. And I, and I, I think based on Prime Minister Trudeau's background, he, he will expect that. I, I think if it shows up that this isn't happening at a high enough level, that's when we'll start to see some cabinet shuffles and things like that. But we'll, uh, we'll have to watch and, and see with all of that. Okay, let's take a break. When we come back here on RealAg Radio, we're actually going to talk to Brady and Bailey Burnston from Medicine Lake Montana. We're going to learn about some of the things they're doing with their no-till operation there in the northeastern corner of Montana. Back right after this. In crop protection, you know the drill— pay more for the brand or choose a generic and hope for the best. Life Scientific believes you shouldn't have to choose. Using reverse engineering science, we replicate the full formulation of proven products, delivering performance you can trust at a price that makes sense. Life Scientific. No secrets, just science. Visit LifeScientific.com/North-America for products and retailers near you. How's your seed quality? What should you treat with? What about herbicide carryover and environmental concerns? Spring is here and you've got a lot of things to think about in regards to your pulse crop. The Pulse School on RealAgriculture has information and advice for all these questions and more to help you navigate this season. Brought to you by BASF. Hall School episodes are available at pulsschool.com, RealAgriculture.com, or as a podcast on your favourite streaming service. Download the latest episode today. There's a reason we call it the Corn School. Videos on everything from planter setup to weed control, field trial results, and the latest yield strategies. The Corn School on RealAgriculture.com has the information and advice you need to help you succeed. Brought to you by Pride Seeds and BASF, Corn School episodes are available at CornSchool.com, from RealAgriculture.com, or as a podcast in your favourite podcast app. Check out the latest Corn School episode today. Shaun Andy here with RealAgriculture.com, and we're going to learn a little bit about about some of the practises and how crops are looking there in the northeast corner of Montana. Right now we're talking to Bailey and Brady Bernsten who are in Medicine Lake, Montana. Hey guys, how we doing? Good, how are you doing today, Shaun? Hey, really good, really good. So maybe Bailey, let's start with you. Tell us a little bit about the farm. So we're west of Medicine Lake, Montana. It's kind of up in the northeast corner and We farm, our main farm is 10 miles west of Medicine Lake. And then we also farm southeast down by Freud and kind of spread out. So we got some different soil types. We're right where we're, our farm's located. It's a nice loam soil. So, you know, that's the majority of our good crops are going to come up here, but then we farm stuff that's really light sandy down southeast of Freud. So we're kind of, you know, scattered around on soil types. So, you know, our farming practise is mostly to build up residue, organic matter, try and save our moisture as much as we can. Um, yeah, it can really present some agronomic challenges when you've got a, you know, a relatively broad range of soil types you're trying to deal with. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Conditions can change a lot from one area to the next and, you know, different residues from different areas depending on the prior year or years before that. So yeah, we kind of all sorts of different things going on. Well, Bree, what kind of— so we talked about some of the soil types. What crops are you growing? Yeah, so we grow majority of our stuff is in durum and peas and lentils. Well, we try and sprinkle in mustard or canola or flax when we can, when it works out, but a lot of peas, lentils, and durum for the most part, or it has been at least in the past. So I know that I've been through that area of Montana. I know that, you know, one of your biggest challenges is Mother Nature and rain. Okay, so that is a given. We know we have to deal with that variable that's out of our control. Brady, what are some of the other agronomic challenges that you're trying to face and deal with? Yeah, well, I mean, I think everybody right now deals with the input costs and, and that kind of stuff, you know, and, and where a guy can kind of help out, um, either cutting back or be more efficient on, on how the crops are using those nutrients that you put down and if you can save money anywhere, but You know, and what, what you can do with the moisture you're allotted, you know, in a given season, you know, everybody, you know, we're, we don't live in an area where we can bank on rain and great growing weather all season long. So it's really what can we do with, you know, the ground that we're given and the weather that we're given for that year, how efficient can we be? Yeah, I always say that everybody has their own definition of drought, and, uh, you guys are in an area where, yeah, that, that, that, that is— yeah, I think, right, I think the saying is we're always about one week away from a, from a drought, you know, which, which is absolutely true. Things can change in a hurry, um, around here for sure. Yeah. Okay, so how would you guys describe, describe your your practices. Are you like hard, like zero-till no matter what? Do you do some minimum till? Like, just describe what you're doing from a soil disturbance perspective. Yeah, so I mean, we, we went no-till, uh, in 2008. We went for— we should say we went from a hoe drill to a disc drill in 2008, um, and then we added in stripper headers in 2013, 2014. Okay. And so we're pretty hardcore no-till. We do, we own a Pro-Till, but that is basically for maintenance on like waterways and moving out. Yeah, if we pick up ground that is rough or, you know, but it's, it's pretty, pretty no-till. We try not to touch anything if we can help it. I really wonder why we don't see more stripper headers. Bailey, right? Yeah. I mean, it's an added cost. I mean, you got to run two headers. But you think of all the benefits and it's just when you start adding them all up, things that you wouldn't typically think of, you know, it's just a no-brainer. Yeah, it really, once you get into the system and, you know, yeah, the initial investment, you know, you got, you have to own two headers. You have to have a header for cutting your on the ground, your pulses and that kind of stuff. And then, You know, you throw the stripper header on in your wheat and flax and some other things whenever you can. But once you get into it, you know, then you're, you're okay. You know, the initial investment can, can be a sting, but it really pays off. It doesn't take long for it to pay off too. One thing that— oh, go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, I was just saying one thing that we run into is that, you know, we want to build up our residue as much as we can to cover the ground. But then we ran into where you start getting too much residue, where that's where picking the right drill and trying to manage that residue plays a big factor. Yeah, I was just going to ask you guys about this. So because we're using the stripper, we're trying, you know, our goal here is to build the COVID on top of the soil and have that residue. And, you know, I did a prior discussion, you know, on this topic, and I called it trash. I was corrected. It's not trash. That makes it sound like it's worthless. So Right, right. There's a very important part. Crash is a good thing. Yeah, yeah, you got me there. So how do we deal with that residue? How are we penetrating that residue to make sure we're getting the proper seed placement? Talk about some of the things you're doing at seeding time. Yeah, so I mean, like Bailey said, the drill really is what's gonna make or break you if you get into high residues, you know. And so that's where When we, when we switched to the, the spider drill, that really alleviated a lot of our issues on seeding into high residue, a lot more forgiving. Prior, you know, we had, we had, like I said, we've been doing disc drills since 2008. And we would really, we would try and use a rotation if we had to, we would try not to grow like 2 years of durum on each other, Because it would too much residue in the year after the drills wouldn't get through, couldn't cut through everything. And so we would try and rotate into pulses every other year or throw in a canola or something like that with a little bit less straw. But since getting the Spyder, they handle that residue so well and they cut into it so well that we've been able to start going back into like 2 years of durum or wheat stubble and and still be able to seed into residue and get the penetration through it. Yeah, they really, really made a big difference on what we can do with the residue on the ground. So, okay, so dig a little deeper there. Why is it so good at that? Like, what's, what's the difference? For one, they're a heavy, heavier drill. You need weight. To penetrate for sure. That's a big thing. And then running the, the double disc like they do, two different size discs spinning at different speeds, they really slice through residue well. Typical disc drills where they run just a single disc with a scraper, they— there's a lot of drag that happens, occurs, where those discs will actually stop spinning for fractions of a second. If you look at a single disc disc drill, it almost is the same as a point on a hoe drill, you know, where it's got that scraper and it's still pushing, opening the ground up with that scraper while it's, you know, cutting. But, but that the angle or that compound angle that it runs on where it's still kind of dragging in the ground, you start bunching up You know, it's not slicing, it's getting caught. Yeah, they talk about hair pinning. Guys are always worried about hair pinning with a disc drill and high residue, and, and that definitely happens more so in that kind of a system with that type of drill where the, the two discs really alleviate most of that issue. And, and this is also where some of that dryer bias of, of your Geo also works in your benefit in terms of dealing with some of that hair pinning too, right? Right. Yep, absolutely. Yeah, no, it, it really, really solved that problem for us. Okay. In the high res— because typically, and I mean, you get into high residue and it kind of goes hand in hand. If you get into a high residue, you're going to be dealing with some wet soil underneath that and even some wet straw underneath that initial layer too. And so to be able to get through that that straw, knowing that you have good moisture under it, it really, it's a game changer on knowing that that moisture is out there, you know, and you're getting to it. Yeah, most seed, right? Most springs, depending on the spring, but like this year we started, we started seeding on our lentil ground, seeding wheat, and it was getting dry. We didn't have rain. We had a lot of wind. You know, and it's like every few days we were checking our depth and setting the drills a little deeper because the bare ground, the lentil ground was starting to dry out. And we got halfway through seeding and we moved out to our stripper stubble ground and where we had high residue. And we, we pulled in the first field and started seeding and there's moisture right at the top of the ground, right under that residue. Yeah. And so it's always nice. Get halfway through seeding and if it hasn't rained, we kind of can always bank on we're going to get to this stubble and we're going to be all right. You know, if we can get, get the dry ground seeded while there's still some early moisture in there, we kind of know that that ground is sitting off to the side, holding its own, and we'll be okay. Yeah, great to have that confidence. Yeah, absolutely. It's a nice, it's a nice relief knowing that You should be all right by the time you get to it. How are crop conditions looking this year? You know, it's been a really odd year. It was super dry, windy, terrible seeding conditions. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Probably the driest— it's definitely the driest spring that we'd ever seen. We haven't been doing it that long, but that even the Old-timers are saying, you know, we've never seen this. They always, always compare it to the '80s. It was horrible. Grasshoppers, drought, you know, terrible conditions. And there's the old-timers saying that, that we'd have— we had a week of wind where, I mean, you couldn't see a quarter mile down the road. It was so bad. Dust storms. And they say they were saying this is worse, way worse than the '80s even. But so anyway, yeah, we had Tough seeding conditions, luckily got the crop in and the water turned on. And we got a really good chunk of rain in June. And everything looked really good. Since then, probably the last 2 weeks, the heat has kind of turned on and crops are— they're gonna start having a tough time. Everything's still pretty young, just with the conditions we had early on. You know, so I mean, the next week or two is probably going to determine a lot. Looks good right now. Could you definitely use a shot of rain this coming weekend? It's supposed to be in the hundreds and— Yeah. Yeah. That might— So like we said, we're always a week away from a drought. You guys are living it. You guys are living it. Yeah, right. It's like— Yeah, we're looking at the weather week to week and decide what we're going to do. Yeah. I think, you know, I was at the— talking to a lot of farmers this week, northeast Saskatchewan, they're saying the same thing. Need that, need another— the crop looks good, need another shot of rain to really for it to achieve the potential because it is a little bit behind where we would expect to be in the staging here. Yeah, we really are. Conditions early really set things back and nothing really wanted to grow until we— those rains showed up and So yeah, yeah, no, we had a really, really nice stand on everything. Yeah, it's just, can it finish off or not? Well, but that's, and that kind of comes back to the, the disc drills and the stripper headers is there's a lot of years where we'll get to this stage of the season and things are filling, flowering and filling, and it gets dry and hot. And we've seen it in the past where it seems like the high residue ground and stuff, it'll maybe hold on like a week longer than, you know, say, uh, they'll hold some moisture, say a hoe drill ground or whatever, and maybe it'll catch that rain a little bit later and finish off. It's interesting, so a number of years ago the conservation district was out testing soil temps, like surface temps, and just randomly, and they were by one of our fields, they walked out into the neighbour's field with a hoe drill and they just shot the surface temperature on the soil and it was well over 100 degrees or 110 degrees or something like that. Walked across the trail into our stuff, pushed that residue aside and I think the temp was like 80. Yeah. Oh wow. And so it was like 30, 40 degree difference. Right. And so, I mean, you think about it when, when your crops are trying to finish off and pull moisture and fill, you know, that 30-40 degree difference can make quite a difference in the end, you know, that time of year. Absolutely. Well, hey guys, I really appreciate the conversation. Congratulations on what you guys are doing on your farm and working together there. It was great to meet you, and all the best here. And let's hopefully get that shot of rain that you need to finish off this crop and make sure it achieves its potential. So thank you so much. Right, yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Shaun. It was great talking to you. Nice to meet you. We'll be back with more of RealAg Radio right after this. The crop is in the ground, the sprayer tracks are fading. Now your field is telling a story. Weather changes, conditions shift. Your crop needs the right nutrients at the right time. That's where Vantage Ag comes in. Our Quantum Matrix technology is engineered engineered at the sub-nanoparticle level to help nutrients stick, stay, and absorb, so more of what you apply is used by your crop. Vantage Ag, a better way to grow. Visit vantage.ag. The Canola School on RealAgriculture.com is your one-stop shop for everything a canola grower needs. Check out our free video series on YouTube for all the latest in canola agronomy, research, marketing, and more. Don't have time to watch Download the podcast version of The Canola School on RealAgriculture.com or anywhere you download your podcasts. Stay on top of all things canola with The Canola School on RealAgriculture.com, brought to you by BASF and InVigor Hybrid Canola. Joining us right now is Greg Stamp. He's the seed business manager with Stamp Seeds based out of Enchant, Alberta. Hey Greg, how we doing? Hey Shaun, awesome. I didn't get enough of being outdoors at Ag in Motion, so I decided to bring you out to our demo plots here at Enchant and continue my outdoors week. Nice, I like it. It's going good. I appreciate it. I like the real backdrop that you're rolling with there. It looks like a pretty good field behind you. Yeah, this is an irrigation field. This is where we do all of our seed demos and compare the varieties and take forage cuts and and then take it to harvest as well and get some real-world comparisons under our farm management. The pivot's actually going behind me, which the rye crop doesn't need any more water, but they've got other things going on in this field too. So, but maybe we can get a little gauge of falling numbers actually. Nice, nice. Okay, so you've been doing a lot of work with hybrid rye. I guess what's driving the interest from a farmer perspective? I know you were doing a bunch of presentations out at Ag in Motion this week, but also talking to some of your customers back home? Yeah, I would say like a number of years ago, the rye acres and rye price warranted people saying, hey, let's grow some rye, and the acres were low and prices were high for a number of years. Price fell a little bit in recent years, but really what happened this winter was the feed grain prices. So Southern Alberta, Southern Saskatchewan, you know, the ethanol price went up, so they're paying more for products to make ethanol because of the whole war issues. And then feedlot alley, I mean, they're paying, you know, a percentage, maybe it's 90%, 85% of barley price landed in a feedlot. So these feedlots coming on board, and then of course pig feed and all the other animal feed, like, that's really driving it for Southern Alberta. Agronomically, what are some of the things that you are seeing customers do with hybrid rye, especially to kind of get that crop off to a good start at seeding Yeah, I'd say most people are seeding, you know, 3/4 of an inch. You want that plant even, you want the crop even, so slow down like you would treat canola and plant on time. You know, we're planting 1 unit per acre, which is a million live seeds, 23 plants per square foot, so that 1 unit per acre seeding rate, people are using seed treatments to get that crop established a little faster, protect, you know, changes the crop how it tolerates winter stress when you do a seed treatment as well. And, and I think on what does on time mean, I would say southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan would be maybe the 25th of August you could start, all the way up until about the 20th of September, where past that it might not get big enough in the fall. And if you're in the central regions of prairies, I would say maybe August 20th you could start, and maybe the 15th you want to be, be wrapped up at. So it's a little bit bit of a tight window there, but definitely doable if you have some planning. Especially you come out of maybe some of that silage crop, because it's a little bit earlier seeding maybe than some of the, even some of the winter wheat, you're probably getting some cover quicker. Yeah, if you can get to 3-leaf or 4-leaf in the fall with a few tillers in the fall, that's ideal. And what's going to happen is a lot of people do a residual, like a do a burn down in the fall, maybe put a residual herbicide on so you've got some broadleaf control into the fall and into the spring even. And then next spring you're going to have really good suppression of wild oats and Kochia. So that is one thing that people are doing is pick your worst wild oat and Kochia field, and if you can get that field seeded this fall with a hybrid fall rye, there's oftentimes people don't have to spray next spring actually in crop. And because of the allelopathic effect and the physical early competition of rye, it suppresses those weeds and in some cases you don't have to spray in crop next year. As a seed grower and retailer, you're talking to a lot of farmers, what are you hearing right now from growers as they plan for the fall season? Well, this year looks like another good year where early seeded or fall crops probably are going to be the winner because we had lots of moisture early and then the taps have kind of turned dry now, so I think the fall crops are going to shine on a year like this, And then the crops are fairly even. So, well, you've got some areas where they're flooded out and maybe even couldn't seed the whole farm, so potentially there is some open acres that they could get started with a fall crop so they can get some acres in the ground for next year in those over-wet areas. And in, in the drier areas where maybe crops are starting to turn, you might have an early canola field, an early pea field, or lentil field that's going to come off, you know, in time to get the fall crop in. So evenness of those previous crops, you know, gets you through the field faster, and this year looks like it could be that way. Yeah, and, and, you know, we've been talking to numerous KWS stakeholders kind of through the season here, and one of the things I've heard is in a year like this where we have some variability, we have areas that could use a little bit more moisture, we've got areas that got way too much in the spring, the versatility of hybrid rye based on the varied growing conditions, is kind of showed up this year, I think. Yeah, well, in our area, it really shows up because you've got irrigation customers planting it who could grow a Durham, they could grow a CWRS, they can grow other crops, barley, and it works on their fields. And you've got the dryland customer on the driest of fields, and it works for them as well. So it's one of those really versatile crops that it seems like because the feed market is growing the amount that can be used in Western Canada is growing as well. Yeah, so acres have something to move up. And you know, we had that kind of a slower, cooler, wet spring. We already got crop in the ground. Like, it's again, it's the benefit of that winter seeded crop, right? You're not having to wait because you've already got it up, you got it established, and it really gets a chance to launch, especially when you get some of those, you know, wetter springs like we did have in southern Alberta and other areas. Yeah, and it spreads some of your risk, right? So if you do have a wet spring and dry summer, even if you don't have that, it does spread the risk on your farm from all, all your eggs in one basket for a crop type, and then even for moisture use periods, right? So if we get our moisture early in the spring, the rye's gonna love that. Even if you don't, the hybrids can actually tolerate a lot of stress and then still add on rows later on. So it's quite amazing actually how, you know, flexible, I guess, or versatile that crop is, or responsive it is to when it gets good conditions again. So it's, uh, you do have some late tillers sometimes when the rains come later, but sometimes that's half the crop on dry land in southern Alberta. You're looking for those tillers to come when you get some rains a little bit later, actually, because that's half your yield sometimes. So yeah, I think versatility is a great descriptor for, for sure. For audience members that maybe are considering hybrid rye for some of the reasons that you've discussed here for the very first time, what would you say to them? I would say if you're thinking hybrid fall rye, start making a plan, cheque out the varieties, look at what— so we represent some KWS varieties, Serafino, Receptor, varieties like that, so I would say get a plan in place on what varieties you might want to pick, get those home even, right, we have seed on hand ready to ship right now, so you can get it in your bin, But also, is your drill ready? You know, do you have a separate drill for your cart versus your drill? Can you get a tractor on that drill? Do you have some fertiliser bought and organized? You know, we'd like to put down all of our nitrogen in the fall as straight urea. Rye is a pretty steep user of nitrogen, so you want to put that nitrogen on in the fall. If you're concerned about leaching or something like that, you can use an inhibitor, but ESN, it doesn't release fast enough. So winter wheat, ESN is good, but for a hybrid fall rye, you need that fast release in the springtime. So, but yeah, do you have fertiliser organized? And if you don't, you could put it on in the spring. It's just, we never found we could get it on early enough and moved into the soil by a predictable rainstorm or snowstorm. So, yeah, as you look across your farm just in general, how are crop conditions? Uh, pretty good. That cool June, I mean, we lost a few acres on irrigation due to some big storms, you know, after we had irrigated a little bit. But dryland crops are above average, they're double average probably in southern Alberta across the board, and I think the taps have kind of turned off, so the earlier seeded crops are going to fare the best this year, but it's amazing how many crops are out of flower, turning, like it's very close to harvest here in late July. You see it with the canola, you can see the staging, like we're getting out of flower and we're into a different part of the growing season, just amazing how fast that that happens. I feel like we were just putting seed in the ground and here we are, the back end of July. The seasons are so short, I just can't believe how short the seasons are. As I get older, the seasons move so much faster. But then, you know, we're doing— everyone's doing more crops, right? Like, they're spreading that planting window, that workload window, and then, you know, when you do a fall crop, you can often get in the field faster on some of your cereals as well. So yeah, so that's a nice thing. Yeah, but I mean, I was doing a— I did a net return chart, you know, when I punched in all the different crops you could grow on irrigation, rye was about— hybrids were about 10% above CWRs on irrigation, assuming kind of today's prices, and on dryland, assuming you get more yield out of your rye because you get earlier moisture, it was like 50% advantage over a lot of the other cereals in that net return chart, so I mean, Durham doesn't look that hot right now, and even with the run-up in CWRS, I mean, the rye yield potential on dryland especially is, you know, it shows really well in net return charts. And especially now that from, you know, from a feedyard perspective, they're more interested in as a feed grain. And so that, that, that is, that has really been a difference maker from a demand standpoint. I think so. I mean, if you have someone who is always there, they're feeding an animal every day of the year, And if they have a bin for that rye and they're buying in the marketplace, that it really changes the marketplace and really allows you to be liquid with what you grow as well. It's like you can phone a broker and sell something this week or in a month, right? So, yep, absolutely. Hey Greg, thanks for joining us. I appreciate the fact you did this out in the field. Awesome backdrop. And hey, all the best to you. And avoid some of those mosquitoes, man. They are— they're aggressive. Not too bad here, but I had to do the real background for you and the show. So yeah, I appreciate it. That is Greg Stamp. He is the seed business manager at Stamp Seeds. And Greg, appreciate you joining us. Hey, thanks, Shaun. Coming up next on RealAg Radio, we're gonna get your feedback. We're gonna go into the email folder in my email system and see what you had to say about some of the topics we've been discussing here over the past number of weeks. Get to that right after this. Built on over 100 years of seed innovation and unwavering commitment to farmers, Pioneer 100 Series canola hybrids deliver a step change in yield performance and agronomic traits. This isn't just better canola, it's different canola. Pioneer 100 100 Series. Contact your local Pioneer sales representative or visit pioneer.com/100series to learn more today. Hi, I'm Bernard Tobin, host of the Soybean School on RealAgriculture.com. Throughout the year on the Soybean School, we'll bring you timely agronomic video content from planting to harvest, from the latest agronomic research to the latest in production technology. Check out our massive video library on YouTube, RealAgriculture.com, or download the audio podcast versions wherever you get your podcasts. The Soybean School is brought to you by Maizex Seeds and Lallemand Plant Care. Welcome back to RealAg Radio. And let's now get some of your feedback here on the show. I got an email here from Bill, who heard our discussion post-StatsCan report where StatsCan's forecasting 23.4 million acres of canola, and Bill's short email is, that's BS. So Bill is not buying into it. Now, to support Bill's bearish sentiment on the canola acre in Western Canada, I did talk to somebody last week at Ag in Motion in the seed industry who believes that we're a million acres under that. Okay, so Bill's not alone here. There are some that believe that there's not that— there's— we will not hit that number. But I will say this though, whether it's 22.5 or 23.5, there's a lot of canola out there. And as you fly across Western Canadian prairies, like right now, like when I was flying back from Saskatoon to Calgary on, on Wednesday You just look out, it's just yellow as far as you can see. But the one seed company insider was telling me that we'll wait when we get the better idea on some of the returns, we may be a little bit closer. Now others are saying, hey, also pay attention to the fact that there was a number of unseeded acres and some of the canola didn't actually get in. We really don't know that unseeded acreage right now. That is kind of a big debate. But yeah, it's interesting to hear some of the feelings. And listen, I also heard from somebody last week that believes we're actually going to be higher than 23.4. So there is everybody kind of debating this, each side of this equation, regardless of where that acre number is, where the production could be if we actually achieve this potential. There's gonna be a lot of crop to move for sure to the biofuel market or export out of the country. Hey, that's all the time we have here for today. If you have any feedback, send me an email, [email protected]. Thanks everybody for tuning in to RealAg Radio, and we'll chat again tomorrow. Cheers, everybody.