What a year! Yes, we also experienced the wet fall that many of you endured. We've all been asking each other, across the province, 'how much do you have left in the field?' and, 'how wet is your grain testing?'. Often, the answer was 'off the scale' or 'un-testable' -- one neighbour aptly put it as, 'de-testable'! Hopefully, most of you have all of your crops off, for those who don't - hang in there and hopefully the spring harvest conditions will be good.
Thinking back to summertime, the CLC had a good year with interesting projects and lots of tours. Our informal tour style creates a comfortable atmosphere for interaction between and among the resource people and the producers. This summer, approximately 350 people attended these guided tours and numerous others took advantage of the self-guided tours. Special interest was addressed during the different tours towards trees and woodlot management, direct seeding issues, cereal crop choices, forage production, forage seed production, herbicide tolerant canolas and alternative crops, fertilizer management systems, weed management and precision farming.
School teachers and students continue to enjoy the learning experience that our school program coordinator, Jo Detillieux, presents at the site and in the classroom. Thirty classes visited the CLC this year.
Results from field projects are still being worked on for printing in our annual Field Results booklet. Some of these will be highlighted in future editions of the Prairie Steward as well.
At present, we are trying to wrap up the 1996 crop year and make some plans for the future. If you have in mind some topics that the CLC should try to address, you are invited to contact the CLC office at 953-2796 in Prince Albert.