Gravelbourg & District Tribune

I grew up on a mixed farm and remember all to well the ritual of spring seeding. It was exciting and equally brutal. I'll explain.

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When I grew up grain producers didn't have cabs on the tractors. (Yeah… I’m that old). They were starting to pop up but mostly they were few and far between. You will notice this year how windy conditions have been. Now try sitting on an open-air tractor while pulling a 16 ft. disker as you seed. You start the day wearing a winter parka and because it was the years of summer fallow the wind whips up enough dust to blind you. It started so cold you froze your hands then got very hot and windy then back to the winter parka. Not much fun.

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Equipment back then was pretty good, all things considered. You had the seed loader in the truck box and you managed to fill the disker fairly well. Because of the wind you would lose a lot of seed when filling it. That was the least of my worries… it was that open-air tractor that was the killer.

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And on a good day you didn't seem to get much done. Today the rigs grain producers' use can put away a section of land in no time flat. And good for them!  If you have big acres it means you need big equipment.

 

What makes it so amazing is you seed all the land. None of this half and half we did back then. That means we have more than double the acres yet it gets done in half the time. How things have changed.

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So far this spring we've had good moisture. Looking good. Keep your fingers crossed.

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