Time Lapse Canola Day by Day for 2017

One canola crop        One growing season   .... Many returns for more than one generation

Time Lapse Photography on Kernels field north of Brandon

Time

Time...
Time is such a variable word...  it can fly by or it can inch past  depending on the situation,  One thing it does do is it keeps on going...
    We had the time lapse camera set up at the VanHeyst canola field for the whole crop year this year.
The camera looks like a parking meter watching over a street...  this camera watched Hope being produced !   Every day for the growing season it took 4 pictures.   It also has a setting not to take pictures in the dark...    Put them all together and you follow the life of several tiny seeds from start to finish...   the finished part though is just the beginning of the story of Hope created when the seeds get harvested and sold and those funds get leveraged and matched by the government and put into place by World Relief Canada and the Canadian Food Grains Bank.   Then it really grows hope by assisting people in countries of need in Africa to grow their own food and grow their liveliehoods .   Hope is simple and necessary in any country.  Thanks for helping create that !

 This field is done !  The canola at Ron's by Brandon is now harvested and in the elevator!  It looked like a low yield potential because of not enough rain for much of the summer...  But !  and its a big BUT !   The crop turned out to produce a big yield of 50 bushels per acre !  We sold it for 10.60/ bu
That is a good return that will go a very long way toward helping our friends in Africa to grow their own crops and sustain their families.  If you were or are able to help with any of our expenses this year I thankyou,  World Relief Canada thanks you and our friends in Africa thankyou so much !  If you had shelter today and enough to eat and drink please don't take that blessing for granted !
Ray the Grain Guy

Manitoba Update

   Whether the weather will be right...

  That's always the question when planning and planting a crop for whatever part of the world you live in...  Whether the weather will be right...  too cold, too windy,  too hot,  too dry,  too wet, unpredictable timing of rains,  hail, frost, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, extended periods of fog...   all of these things and more can and do effect the successful or unsuccessful results of the harvest.  For most its an annual event and an annual gamble.   This year in Manitoba we have been worried all summer about too little rain and too much heat.   There was lots of moisture in the soil last fall and good snow cover in the winter.  The crop was seeded into good conditions with just a little rain to start the crop off.  Being quite dry in the spring forced the roots of the crops to dig down and search for moisture.  Roots have the ability to go down a couple of feet to absorb moisture and also the nutrients carried through that water.  Farmers and agronomists were worried about low yields because of not enough rain... The dry weather lasted most of the summer and fall until this weekend ! Most people in the area have been having a wonderful surprise when they pulled into the wheat fields.  The bushels were rolling in better than many have ever had in their farming careers !  The establishment of the root systems early allowed the plants to survive and thrive in this environment !  In this area we often have a disease in the wheat called fusarium.  This reduces the yield somewhat and the value and makes it much more difficult to market.  A wheat crop has flowers ( believe it or not ) and if the disease is in the soil or the seed and if you get rainfall during the flowering stage it makes the infection rate go up dramatically.  All in all having the dry growing season this year with the moisture in the soil from 2016 made for a wonderful healthy big yielding wheat crop !    As one farmer said..." If we could have picked the weather we would have got it wrong this year !    We will be able to help more people in Africa than we expected this year !   Stay tuned...
Ray the Grain Guy

Beanz

Here are pictures of Jim and Sandys soybeans taken on the same day as Ron's canola swaths.   Soybeans take a longer time to become mature... ( some might say that about me ! )
They need some rain to fill those pods !   The lowest pods generally are maybe an inch off the ground so that requires care and some special equipment to get them into the combine .

The Swath's

The Canola at Ron's was swathed August  25 th.  There hasn't been much rain on it this year but it is looking good !   Little rain also means less disease ...  stay tuned for yields....  what's harvested is what counts !

There is no I in Pod in this field !

Canola pods... imagine the smallest peas in the world and that will show you what canola seeds in a pod looks like !   The flowers are now gone in the canola but they left behind millions of pods with millions of seeds in them... We will put that seed to work helping our African friends by turning our farming profits into seeds and tools and more to help them produce crops and liveliehoods of their own !
These pictures are from the start of August at the VanHeyst farm near Brandon
Grow with us !

Beans are thirsty !

Beans R Us !

Our weather has been generally hot an and too dry in July ... Soybeans however are really used to that and if they can get a good start with good germination they are happy till august which is when the rain is needed to fill those pods !    The price for fall is about 10.50 / bu now...  some people want $11 and some say $12... there is still lots of uncertainty out there for what will happen to the crops it it doesn't rain more very soon !      So that is keeping our prices decent ! 
       Beans provide protein through the meal and also oil when they are crushed.  In our case they provide money for our project to help people in Africa survive and thrive !   Thanks for helping if you can !
  Ray the Grain Guy  

Working together !

Two cool events I was part of recently !   Two of our Virtual Farmers helping put up the new sign on the Real field and meeting Ron !     Working together so well to help others in Africa !
The bottom picture was the Snowbirds at the Shoal Lake last week...working together as one !

The canola is Growing !

The canola is now bigger than the camera !

The Borley's Know Beans !   Soybeans that is...it looks like they are doing well !
Soybeans have been around Western Manitoba for about 4 years now and they expand a lot in acreage every year ! 

Time lapse canola pictures in the making

Ron's field of canola by Brandon taken earlier    We set up the time lapse photography camera at this stage so we can later see the crop grow  a whole season in a couple of minutes!   Stay Tuned !

May is nearly over and we are Growing Again !

   We'd like you to join us by helping pay the expenses of our real farmers in Canada to create a much better life for people in need in Africa,   allowing them to provide for their own families.
 We have real farmers throughout the Prairies that are willing to do the work.  Are you willing to help too !?
Stay tuned for updates...
Ray the Grain Guy

   The soil has had it's rest...  The cold winters of Canada do have some advantages... the soil freezes and thaws and breaks up into more mellow useful texture... some diseases and insects can't survive the cold and moisture levels are usually increased to get the crops off to a good start .  Our project has had a bit of a rest too...  it has also helped people in the Congo be able to break some disease cycles and fight insect problems... better nutrition makes your immune system much more resilient !  Moisture too is generally improved in the project.  Sometimes teaching better ways to use water and conserve it to raise better crops... and often to teach people how to access cleaner water for themselves.  Often the families lives are mellowed like the soil... when every single decision is based on pure survival you can't relax and enjoy your surroundings or your family...
    Thankyou for helping with all those things !   We will be farming again this year... Stay tuned for how you can help...

Ray the Grain Guy

This rail car carries a lot of grain !   It is sitting in a field near Manitou, Manitoba.... there are no rail tracks near it.  The car is still useful but  rail cars are much more useful when they are running on the tracks performing their job !   Our Kernels project has been parked for a couple of months but it is still definitely on track... We will be launching this season over the next month and hope you can join us on the ride !   Growing and Going !

Ray the Grain Guy

Farmers

  

   What's the most important job in the world ?  And has been since the beginning of time ?


   If you like to and need to eat you know that farmers are what make that eating possible on an ongoing basis.  With Kernels of Hope we really try to make it so that more of this worlds 7 Billion people can count on having food for not only today but tomorrow and not only for themselves but for their children. 
    We are getting ready to farm again for real in 2017 !   We need real farmers who will do the work for us and we need virtual farmers who will pay the expenses of raising the crops and the hopes of so many!
    Let me know if you are in and able to Grow with us again this year !

Ray the Grain Guy

The 2016 Kernels Windup

   2016 was a good year for growth.  We grew hope and raised hope through our team farming efforts.  We had real farmers doing the work where the rubber meets the road and the seed meets the soil.  We had virtual farmers like you raising and forwarding the $ to make all this happen !   The people in the Congo were excited again to accept the tools and seeds and training to be able to raise more on their own and to start to become self sufficient in providing for their families.   Kernels of Hope is a part of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada who is a part of World Relief Canada.    World Relief Canada makes the connections with the people of Africa. The federal government of Canada make the funds multiply.  The Canadian Food Grains Bank connects these entities and facilitates for the timely flow of assistance to places of need.   I am a Connector involved all along the way.   Thanks so much for enabling any of the help you may have been able to provide this year and in years past.  I will show a recap of some 2016 farming pictures below...  Stay tuned because we are farming and growing again in 2017 !

   Ray the Grain Guy