Farmers could be battling a mess of winter annuals and volunteer crops this spring, say weed specialists.
Many areas are already dealing with a heavy infestation of the unwanted plants due to ideal soil conditions, according to the Canola Council of Canada.
“Especially with stinkweed Ñ gee Christmas, it is just rampant. It seems like the fields are green in some spots,” said Jim Bessel, agronomist with the council.
Adequate soil moisture levels, unseasonably warm early spring temperatures and plenty of leftover nutrients from last year’s frost-damaged crops have combined to kick-start weed growth across portions of the prairie region, although the last few weeks of cold weather have slowed plant development.
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Doug Dunnington’s farm near Swift Current, Sask., is indeed green in spots where stinkweed and flixweed have taken over.
“There is heavy pressure from winter annuals this year and we have been spraying as much as we could until this cold weather struck,” he said.
But in other places the problem hasn’t materialized the way experts anticipated.
Manitoba Agriculture weed specialist Bruce Murray has toured extensively throughout the province’s southwest and hasn’t noticed more weeds than normal.
“I haven’t been in a field that has shocked me yet,” he said.
He can’t explain why that is because with the poor 2004 harvest and the lack of fall work, conditions couldn’t be better for the development of winter annuals.
Merle Heide, administrator of Redfern Farm Services in Brandon, said everything is late in the south, including the weeds, so he hasn’t noticed any heightened demand for weed control products.
“It has been so cold nothing is growing. There hasn’t been any glyphosate to speak of going out.”
The situation is much the same in Alberta.
Judging by producer comments filtering into Alberta Agriculture’s call centre, it doesn’t appear as if winter annuals are going to be any more than the usual problem, said crop specialist Doon Pauly.
What has been a concern is the weather. With overnight temperatures dipping into double-digit negatives last week, weed control efforts have been non-existent.
“Guys are anxious to get on the field but it is really not conducive to burn-off type weather,” said Pauly.
In Saskatchewan, Dunnington plans to spray his field from side-to-side with 2,4-D or Roundup Weathermax to give his seedlings a fighting chance once the weather breaks.
“These weeds take a lot more moisture than a person realizes and it’s moisture you can’t recover,” he said.
While the jury is out on whether farmers will be facing an epidemic of winter annuals this spring, analysts are certain they will be facing higher-than-normal infestations of volunteer crops.
“There is good potential because we just didn’t get the fall work done,” said Murray.
There haven’t been enough heat units to prompt the emergence of volunteer wheat and canola, but with the amount of shattering and unharvested crop left in fields across the Prairies last fall, there is little doubt the unwanted crops will pose a threat, he said.
Bessel agreed volunteers will be more prevalent, but he said there is one upside to all this competition Ñ it demonstrates that farmer optimism about 2005 growing conditions may be well warranted.
“Maybe this is a sign, maybe it’s a sign,” he said.
