Volunteers gathered at the Common Ground Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) grow project field, east of Rosenfeld, on Wednesday to take off 300 acres of soybeans.
    
Kevin Nickel says the whole harvest went quite quickly, wrapping up in about three and a half hours.

"We planned to do it this last Wednesday based on the forecast and then when the morning came, we had mists coming so we canceled in the morning thinking that we didn't want to get everybody out there only to send them home, because we had planned to feed them lunch first. And so, then after we all had lunch at home, the mist had stopped. So, we went to try, and it worked. So, we called everybody back and they all came out," he explained. The delay ended up being a positive for the effort. "The night before, we had only been expecting four combines because it's the type of year where there's still a lot of people doing a variety of crops. Corn has started. So, it was a little tough for us to find volunteers. But then on Wednesday, after canceling and restarting, we actually ended up with seven."

"It's just the classic story of wondering if the harvest will come together and being nervous right up until the last minute, and then when it does happen like that, it's just we're just so grateful that it happened and it went the way it did, and we'll keep plugging away at it," he added.

Soybeans is typically a good crop for the project, noted Nickel, adding this year, as in the past, generous donors paid for the expensive seed. This helped ease input costs at the front end.  The dry summer and rain variability, however, did impact the crop this year, he explained. 

"This was not a field that had an abundance. So, the soybeans looked quite small all year, but they needed to be harvested, nonetheless.  And so, it was a modest crop in the end, but prices are still relatively good, so it was definitely worthwhile."

Ultimately, the crop yielded about 23 bushels an acre, which Nickel says is below average but still better than anticipated considering the growing conditions. He noted, the decent prices at the elevator did help make up the difference in the end. 

"They aren't as high as they have been in the last, you know, couple of years, but they're still relatively, historically speaking, they're still quite strong. That most certainly does help. Plus, crop insurance levels are good this year, so we will get some crop insurance proceeds as well on the field, and so our net result will be decent."

Overall, Nickel feels their project's donation to the CFGB will be comparable to those of previous years. 

 

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