The 2021 growing season was marked by poor growing conditions, rising input costs and higher pieces for a disappointing yield.

Jack Froese farms in the Reinfeld area.

“The crop is very poor, but prices are good, which helps compensate somewhat," he said. "We did manage to get some rain in fall to help replenish some of the top soil and maybe a little bit of subsoil, which is very good feeling going into the next crop year. We did manage to get a lot of the fertilizer put in and, then again, the input costs have really risen. But I guess that’s something you'll have to get used to in this time and age we're living in.”

Froese says says the corn failed to meet expectations.

“We did harvest all our corn. We were in an extreme drought area and so the corn never really dried down properly for us or matured the way we would've liked it to. We would have thought, you're planting corn at the end of April and by October it should be dry or getting close to. But a lot of our corn came off at 20, probably 28 per cent moisture. So we have the dryer going.”

Despite the season’s drawbacks, including a poor pulse crop, Froese remains optimistic.

“The canola probably fared better than some of our other crops did. But for us our pulse crops just didn't come around at all. They were probably in the area that we had the most deficiency and moisture or rainfall as well, so they did not perform well. But all in all, we're moving ahead for next year.”

Fall tillage for Froese Enterprises Inc. happened only after the rainfall. Froese says it’s ideal to get freezing temperatures to seal the ground before freeze-up, however not a lot of frost went into the soil this fall. Whether snow or rain, he adds it'll be important to get moisture in any form.