The total rainfall shows this to be a great year. The crop does have potential but there are caveats. We had a long period where the ground was frozen, and a lot of moisture ran off the fields. We had a later than normal start for spring planting which has put those crops behind. This spring we had our usual random low temperature nights. The extent of the damage, if any, is not known. We have had two short periods (3-4 days) of high temperatures (98-100+). These have shortened our canola bloom. What other damage the heat may have caused is unknown to me.
St. John / Ewan, Rainfall (including a lot of snow) record on our farm for 2017 Crop Year.
August 2016 ---> 0.16", September 2016 ---> 0.45", October ---> 4.86", November ---> 1.92", December--->1.02", January 2017 ---> 1.40", February ---> 3.91", March --> 3.81", April ---> 1.58", May ---> 0.84", June ---> 0.72", July 2017 ---> 0.00,
[ Crop year 2017 (Aug/July) = 20.67"]
At Thornton, the business that was keeping a loose record of the rainfall quit December 2016.
[update June 2018] For the calendar year 2017: August = 0.00, September = 0.69", October = 1.98", November = 2.96", December = 3.16".
[ Calendar year total 2017 ---> 21.05"]
133 % of normal for the crop year here at the Pendleton Station. It looks like it was the 4th highest crop year total since 1930 for us through June. We had a few timely spring rains as well. Our canola bloom was shortened by the heat, but we managed to get a winter canola stand to survive for the first time out of three years. One of our scientists noted 80 bushels at a 10.5 inch no-till experiment site. We will know here on the station how things did in the next week or so. Thanks for sharing all the great information. Its always a pleasure to read what your doing or seeing.
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