Van Heyst canola

Just about 15 km north of the deep Assiniboine River where the river is overflowing its banks in Brandon is he Ron and Fran Van Heyst Kernels field ... The canola planted there Friday ( May 20 ) will help us over flow the banks also ! The bank accounts that will contribute to World Relief Canada and the CFGB and then the partners in North Kivu Congo !
Earl of VR Farms put the crop in for us. It is also an Invigor canola. 8440 is the variety. Big bushels from a small seed and a small field promise big things for those in need.
Stay tuned for progress on this field !

Ray the Grain Guy

Canola and Canola

May 18 was a good day at Kernels !

Last year Kendell at Melfort tried and tried to seed the crop and got wet every time !

The land lay fallow for the year... resting and waitin for an opportunity like we had now to get the canola seed in along with just the right nutrition to produce some Big Bushels in '11 !

We got 70 acres of Invigor L130 canola seeded ! This is a high yielding seed that uses Liberty as the chemical for weed control ... sometimes it needs to be sprayed once , sometimes twice ...

Kendell had lotsa help putting the crop in with good citiizens popping up everywhere !

We talked over where we could sell some of the crop...planning ahead ... storage of the crop would not be easy... so... on Friday with the seed planted we sold 15 tonnes of canola in advance.. We will haul it to Viterra in Sept 2011 and get $541.84 per tonne ... there are 44.092 bushels of canola in a metric tonne and that means we will get $12.29 per bushel for this 15 tonnes. That is a very high price historically ! Now we can watch the progress of the crop and see if we should set the price on any more !

In the pictures you will see the seeding operation and the sign that stands by the field.... Thanks so much to all those that contributed !

Grow with us Launch Letter 2011

Wide Open Spaces " Memories with a Future"

These are a few more pictures from the partnership that Kernels of Hope had with Neelin's

" Wide Open Spaces " The shows provided a great chance to get more people involved in being Kernels of Hope Virtual farmers for 2011 and giving a much brighter future to the Congolese of North Kivu !

Student Sized Acre $20.11 for 2011

Here is the Student Sized Acre display that we had set up in the Concert Hall Lobby during the Neelin High School's musical Wide Open Spaces. Since $200 for a full acres cost of production can be daunting for many students I decided to go with a smaller more reachable individual goal of $20.11 for 1/10 of an acre during the musical. We set up the display to show how a little sacrifice here can make a big difference in the Congo. On the left we had some empty Tim Hortons cups and a Movie sized softdrink. If you added up the cost of some coffees and a movie you are into $20 in no time ! So...If you just gave that much up you could invest as a virtual farmer in growing a crop here on the prairies this summer. So maybe with a good yield and good prices that $20.11 will turn into $40 worth of crop. (see the center of the display)
Then we give that crop to the CFGB through World Relief Canada and CIDA matches the $40 by a factor of 4 to 1.... Now you have $200 created from you giving up a few coffees and a movie... That $200 will be sent to a partner in North Kivu , Congo to provide seed and tools ( see the right side of the display) for farmers in the Congo to produce crops for at least 10 families there this year... Amazing but true.
That size of donation can be done anytime this year... Camps, Sunday Schools and individuals of any age can help ! We'll keep the momentum of the show going ! Grow with us in 2011

Ray the gRaYn Guy

Wide Open Spaces Helps sow Kernels of Hope

We had a great opportunity to partner with the Neelin High School in Brandon last week as they performed an original musical written by their own Melissa Lausman. It was Country at its best ! You can see more about the event at the Neelin High School website. www.brandonsd.mb.ca/neelin
( If you'd like to read the Brandon Sun article above just click on it and it should make it bigger for you ! )There were 4 public performances at the Concert Hall in Brandon. I was able to make a presentation explaining Kernels to the whole crew at the start of the week... then we set up a booth in the lobby of the concert hall for all 4 public shows. We had a lot of interest and good conversations and sold the equivalent of 6 acres for Kernels for 2011 ! It was an easy sell as Carolyn Gwyer the musical director shared some of her passion for helping others with the students and encouraged them to have their families help out Kernels ! It's easy to "sell " a project that is win win win ! Melissa Lausman gave us the quote of the week when she said
" Ray...you could sell Ketchup flavoured popsicles to ladies with white gloves !!! "

Wide Open Spaces

This is the Big Week ! The Neelin High School in Brandon put on 4 public shows of their original musical Wide Open Spaces at the Westman Centenial Concert Hall. This year they are promoting Kernels of Hope as their charity of choice... Awareness and funds for virtual farming will be rolling in ! April 14, 15 and twice on the 16 th !