An Update of What We've Been Doing!

Last Friday November 13, 2009, the Crop Tech and Ag. Business students attended Agri-Trade in Red Deer. It was a fun filled day of looking at new and improved machinery as well as summer job searching.
From November 18th and 19th, the Crop Tech class attended Farm Forum in Saskatoon. The 2 day event consisted of 6 key note speakers, 9 break-out sessions, and awesome food! There was lot's to learn about companies and new products as well as some of the science behind Agriculture. There was a lot of information taken in but everyone had fun and was able to get something out of it.
We are currently still looking into prices for our grain and watching the markets to see what will happen next!

Harvest Pictures!

(Top)- Combining Pearman Wheat

(Middle)-Combine setting lab on LC 4 Canola

(Bottom)-Combine setting lab on AL 01 Wheat

Annual Harvest Party!!

On October 29, 2009 was the annual Harvest Party! Approximately 30 people who helped out over the harvest season, came for some steak and socializing.

Presently the SMF group is working to find profitable prices for our grain and to figure out what is affecting the market right now.

The Finish Line is in Sight...Almost

On Monday we did another combine setting lab on our canola field. It was extremely windy and everyone was freezing cold. To top it all of the canola stubble made it really hard to get a good toss of our grain collection pan. Seven trails later and frozen finger tips we finally had the combine set where everyone was happy. That night we continued to combine and got a good chunk of the field complete. The next morning Mat and April went out early and got a couple loads in before class. After class Mathew, April and Tania headed out to finish off the field. Unfortunately this was not the case... Everything was running smoothly until a sharp turn by the trees was made and the auger and the spruce tree got a little intimate. So that put an end to combining for the night. Since that event a temporary fix has been made and we were able to finish the field. Mat still feels pretty silly about his collision but the class has found it in our heart to forgive him.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last week has been eventful to say the least... Over the weekend we finished combining the wheat at Pearmans and then moved all the machinery to the David Pearmans oat field for Monday. In our lab period our class conducted a setting lab on the combine. Everything went really smooth which made for a really easy lab write up. Three of the guys stayed out and finished combining the oats that night. Then Lexie went out and swathed some canola. When she was swathing she went around the field about three times then the back axel fell off!!!! It came as quit a shock to her once she actually figured out what happened. Her neck was pretty soar and headed off to the hospital to get checked out. By the next evening the farm already had it all repaired and then Tobin headed out there and finished swathing. Our wheat was ready to combine so the combined was moved to our field near campuse. One afternoon John Zandstra came out from Guelph. He was very interested in our Student Managed farm and wanted to bring the program back to Ontario. Each night after classes we slowly picked away at the wheat. Finally on Saturday afternoon the field was complete and in the bin on Saturday afternoon. The next day Tania and Tobin got the lucky job of picking rocks. Some how they managed to get Matt one of the first years out to help them and they were done with in an hour.

Here We Go

We have been back at school for two weeks now and everyone is starting to get back into the swing of things. In the first week of school we swathed our canola and did a combine setting lab on our wheat field. When we were doing our lab we all agreed that the wheat was too tough to combine and decided to wait on it. In the early days of the second week our class went out and tested the wheat again but it was still too tough. While we waited for our wheat to be ready we moved onto our custom combine job for David Pearman. On Thursday night we had a bit of rain that unfortunately made us quit early. Everyone is getting pretty antsy and can not wait to get everything flowing with no more set backs.