Getting ready for finals.

This week we loaded out two more loads of CPS and have been working frantically on getting ready for finals next week!!!
From all of us at the Student Managed Farm... Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
See you all in 2009!

Lately on the SMF we have really been busy with selling some grain, last week we sold 2 more loads of peas out to Lavoy for December delivery and also Cargill in Vermilion has a call for 50% of our wheat so on Friday and Monday we are loading up two loads to send in.

At the moment we have been working on budgeting our crop plans for next year, so when we get a complete plan of what is due up for rotations we will be sure to keep you up dated!

Nov. 13th

It has been a while since our last update but, we had our harvest party on October 30th at the Vermilion Legion for steak night! We had quite a few people show up along with our class including the first year croppers, 3 scouts from Cargil, most of the instructors from the crop tech program along with a few of the graduates of the crop tech program from last year.
Last week the students attended Agri-trade in Red Deer Alberta. This was a great show that allowed us to get an update on the whole 2009 line up of machinery.
Lately, we have been really looking into getting a new hopper bottom bin for next year. We have got a few different quotes on prices from a few different dealers, but nothing is set in stone just yet, We still have to appeal the idea to the board.

SMF blog

We the SMF class has finished the harvest on saturday Sept 28, 2008 for the 2008-09 year. We had the best yeilds in SMF history, with the Canola averaging 54 bu/ac. The HRS wheat went about 55 bu/ac for all of the HRS, and the CRS went about 65 bu/ac all around. The peas went 65 bu/ac in DX1 and in DX3S it averaged around 45 bu/ac, and that is our worse production field we have.
This week we moved about 100 MT of our CPS, and pricing out our Canola, peas, and HRS. As the markets are getting poor, we must watch the markets closely and make wise decsions on when and where to sell our grains.

Lakeland College Grad 2008!

Many of the 2008 graduating class from the Crop Tech program were in attendance for the annual convocation in Vermilion today. We all missed having Rodney there. Students left the ceremony for the traditional steak supper at the Legion with family, faculty and friends.

Best of luck to all the grads!!

Crop Field Scouting - Seminar and field day

First and second year Crop Technology students were back on campus for a one-day field scouting seminar and field tour. The second year students from the Student Managed Farm were curious to see how their planned crop was progressing. The first year students got to see the crop that they will harvest this fall. Peter Walsh gave the group an overview of the field operations to date and the diamond back moth and bertha army worm monitoring done at the college. Dean, Josie Van Lent helped the students review herbicide plans for the wheat fields.

Some changes were made to the plans made in the winter given the current weed condition and plans for the following crop. The group walked all of the SMF fields to see the progress, assess weeds and make herbicide plans. This summer field school helps student bridge from a first year observer to a second year manager in the Student Managed Farm. Ashley and Jenna from Cargill in Vermilion were also in attendance.

Crop "Up" date

Picture is from AL01 - May 20

The SMF crops are mostly germinated and emerged... We have had some cool weather for May and that has slowed the growth; the wheat and the peas are ahead of the canola.

Seeding dates are as follows: DX01 - May 8, AL01 - May 15, DX02s - May 11, BR06 - May 10, DX03s - May 12

SMF BBQ set

The 2nd yr Croppers will be glad to know that Peter Walsh broke in his gift set of BBQ tools today at the annual School of Ag/Enviro Science year-end BBQ !!! they were the talk of the town... with so many tools and functions he almost needed instructions !!!

Crop Scouting Field Day - June 6, 2008

All first and second year Crop Technology students are invited to attend the annual crop scouting day on June 6, 2008. This is a great opportunity for 2nd students to see how the crop they planned is progressing and for 1st years to see the crop they will be harvesting. For more information contact Peter Walsh at (780) 853-8586. The next day is Lakeland College's convocation so the weekend is sure to be fun.

Seeding Completed on the SMF

Seeding is now done on the SMF farm. Seeding began May 8th with the peas on the DX01 field and ended May 15th with seeding of canola on the AL01 field. The college is also seeding about 33 acres of corn trials for grazing and silage. A small trial of a nutrient primer seed treatment was done on 5 acres of HRS wheat in BR03. Weed growth at the time of seeding was minimal in most fields. Pre-seed spraying was performed as needed. The SMF would like to thank Bob Wilson and Peter Wilkinson for their great job getting our crop in.

Operations Started on the SMF

Compost was applied on the AL01 field on Tuesday, May 6. The compost is part of an faculty mentored student applied research project sponsered by the Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes. The compost was heavy harrowed and practically disappeared. It should not hinder the seeding of the canola.

The compost was applied in strips and students will use GPS yield maps to measure any yield response. It will interesting to seed if the compost will pay for its cost of application. We will monitor these plots for both the 2008 and 2009 crop years to see if there are any delayed response.

Crop Tech Students' Final SMF Presentation

On April 11, 2008 the SMF students hosted college staff and administration as well as industry representatives and their parents to attend their final SMF presentation. The presentation that lasted nearly 2 hours covered the final tally of the 2007 crop year and the plans for the 2008 crop year. The evening ended with a banquet meal. The SMF reported a profitable 2007 financial statement. The 2008 year will be interesting due to the volitile nature of the current grain markets. The students are planning to grow HRS and CPS wheat, peas and canola on their 850 acre farm. Although there are some final plans to review, the students hosted a very professional evening. They have come a long way in just 2 years!

Weekly events for April 7-11

This week in the Student Managed Farm office it has been all about our final presentation and canola. All of us students have been working like mad to get ready for Friday, when we will be presenting what we have done this last year with regards to the farm and what we are planning to do for next year.

Today we sold 20 tonnes of canola to ADM. On Wednesday we will be hauling 80 tonnes of canola to ADM.

California Field Trip

On February 11, 2008 the second year Crop Technology class of 2006-2008 flew out of Edmonton to land in San Fransisco. The main reason for us our class trip was to experience the diversification of agriculture in another region.

While in California we had the chance to attend the World Ag. Expo, one of the largest world expositions. Oranges were in harvest season so we had the chance to tour two processing plants and a citrus orchard. We were happy to be able to pick the fruit off the trees and eat.

Most of the vegetable farms in the area were getting prepared for seeding. We had the opportunity to tour a large greenhouse were the seeds were started and later could be taken and transplanted in the fields. We then went out into the fields were they had just transplanted lettuce and were in the process of setting up hand move sprinkler irrigation.

After the Vegetable tour we went back to the World Ag. Expo for our final look at the trade show. The trade show was so large we didn't get to see nearly everything. Most of the machinery there, none of us had ever seen befor so we would attempt to guess at what it might be, most of the time we had to ask. Some examples were the lettuce harvester, cotton pickers, and nut Shaker.

We then made our way to Fresno State University were we toured the university farm. Instructors from the university took us to see the machinery used on their farm. we also toured their green houses, orchards and olive groves. We finished off the tour by grabbing a snack from the university market which is supplied by the farm.

We made our way to Paramount Citrus were we had a chance to see how a large scale, high tech orange and lime packing plant was run.

Later on that day we made our way through some mountain trail that eventually lead us to the Pacific coast. Here we spent the last two days of our trip exploring the beach and touring Cal Poly Tech University. The time had finally come to make our way back home. We drove up along the coast towards San Fransisco were we departed the next morning. According to all of the students this truly was a trip of a lifetime.

Thank-you to all of our sponsors who made this trip possible for us.

Crop Tech's New Blog

The Crop Technology students at Lakeland College in Vermilion Alberta have created their new blog to keep everyone informed about events in the program and the progress of the "Student Managed Farm". This blog is intended for current and past students, prospective students and parents and anyone else interested in this unique program.

Enjoy!