Introductions are in order for Darryl Reynolds of Nokomis who fills one of the vacant Board positions of Director at Large for the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association this year.
Darryl joins the board with a strong farming background and a number of years of experience as an agrologist with the Royal Bank. He worked at their Melfort and Saskatoon locations. He has handled both individual and industry accounts. He has filled a number of roles including reviewing and making recommendations on problem accounts and assessing specialty farm proposals. Darryl felt he was a bridge between the farmer and the bank because he understood both sides.
Darryl has been involved with his father Ross at the family farm near Nokomis for many years. In 1995 his father reached retirement age and decided he needed more help on the farm if they were going to continue. Darryl cut his commitment to the bank down to 60% of full time and spent the other 40% of his time back at the farm. In 98 he came back to the farm full time.
Darryl says he and his wife Janice always intended on coming back to the farm to raise their family. They have 2 girls: Sydney who is 3 years old and Amber who is just a year old. Janice is very busy as a breast feeding advocate publishing her own newsletter entitled Moms For Milk. She also works part time as a school book publishing rep. Darryl is a very family oriented man and the whole board and staff look forward to seeing Janice and the girls every 4 months or so at board meetings and other events.
Darryl and his father seed 4500 acres producing a variety of crops including: spring wheat, durum, canola, peas, lentils, coriander, caraway, and sunflowers. They moved their farm slowly into direct seeding starting back in the late 70's. The first step was continuous cropping. By the mid 80's they were seeding with sweeps on a Concord. Fertilizer was banded prior to seeding, also with sweeps. By the early 90's they had replaced the sweeps with Nichols 4² Quick-Change openers and Froc boots. With this arrangement the seed is directed to the sides of the opening and liquid fertilizer is dribbled right behind the shank and between the 2 rows of seed. To date they use this same configuration to seed peas and wheat.
In 1995 they wanted something different for oilseeds so they included a Seed Hawk in their seeding program. They wanted shallow, accurate depth control and good fertilizer placement. They continue to use liquid fertilizer. The Seed Hawk seeds some fall seeded canola and as well as the spring seeded canola and flax. Lentils are also seeded with this machine. Extra effort is put into the spice crops. Coriander is usually seeded after the canola. About a week after the coriander is seeded they will come back with Seed Hawk and seed the caraway. The burn off can be done about a week later and the coriander will be coming up a week after this.
In the early 80's Darryl says they saw that residue management was important so they went to a Redekop chopper which also spread the chaff. Reynolds' cut with a 30¢ and a 36¢ header and they are very happy with this residue handling system. They now also have a New Holland chopper with a chaff spreader and they are satisfied with this set up too.
Daryl says weed control is one of the weak points their system faces, as he hasn't been around at spraying time as long. He is always looking for information, talking to company reps, dealers, and SSCA personnel. He continues to work at developing this part of the program especially with the specialty crops. They have started using some 2,4-D in the fall and then a pre-burn on everything else with 2,4-D or a ½ liter of glyphosate. They pre-harvest about ½ of their acres, mostly peas and wheat.
One of the things Darryl emphasizes is watch your return on investment. Try to keep your investment on equipment down. You can run a good line of reliable equipment but it doesn't all have to be new!
Darryl says Greg Kane played an important role in getting him on the SSCA Board. The board and staff are happy to have you and hope you are with us for a long time Darryl!