PLUMAS, Man. – Dwight Braun’s seeding equipment sits parked at his farmyard.
It is May 16, and Braun hasn’t planted any of his crops yet. The soggy soil in his fields suggest it will still be a few days before he can start seeding, provided the rain clouds stay away.
Braun usually begins seeding in early May. He has 2,500 acres to plant and is trying not to worry.
He doesn’t want to seed into the wet soil because he knows it will damage his equipment and reduce the chance of harvesting a good crop.
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“We’ll do as much as we can, but we’re not going to rip our equipment apart.”
While much of the western Prairies is facing drought this year, pockets of Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan are battling too much moisture.
Braun, who farms east of Plumas, Man., is not the only one anxiously waiting. Nobody else in his area had started seeding as of May 16.
There were heavy rains in his area last fall followed by abundant snowfall in the winter. When spring finally arrived, the weather was wet and cool.
“Nobody can remember a spring this wet,” Braun said. “Lots of guys are worried.”
The situation was similar last week in several farming areas across Manitoba. The most delayed are Manitoba’s eastern region, the Interlake and the southern part of the northwest region.
However, the problem of excess moisture is not considered as severe as in 1999.
In that year, more than a million acres of cropland went unseeded in Manitoba, with the southwestern corner hit the hardest.
Manitoba Agriculture has information posted at its website for producers affected by flooding or excess moisture this spring. The web address is www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture. Once at that site, producers can press an icon labeled flood information to get advice on dealing with this year’s wet spring.
Site topics include crop insurance deadlines and deciding what crops to grow as the end of May approaches.
“We start off by saying wet soil conditions require patience,” said provincial crop specialist Dave Campbell.
“If you try to mud in some of the crops, the success ratio has not been very good.”
The crop insurance deadline in Manitoba for planting most crops is June 20. However, with only a week left in May, producers will have to consider days to maturity when deciding what crops to grow.
The first frost for southern Manitoba usually strikes around mid-September.
“As we get out farther into late May and early June, that’s where you start to see the crop options cut back,” said Campbell. “This is where crops like wheat start coming on stronger.”
Farmers planting into wet soil also need to think about seed treatments to guard against root rot. Part of Campbell’s advice: “Be sure to have adequate protection so the seed doesn’t succumb before it gets out of the ground.”
Soil fertility could be another issue in wet fields. Advice on nitrogen loss through leaching is one of the many topics addressed at the Manitoba Agriculture website.
Grain farmers are not the only ones affected by the cool spring and excess moisture.
At the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration community pasture near Gladstone, Man., manager Fred James was telling producers it would likely be early June before he could accommodate their cattle. That is two weeks later than normal.
The community pasture covers almost 13,000 acres. As of May 16, 90 percent of the pasture was under water.
The delay means cattle won’t be exposed to the community pasture bulls as early as usual. Cows bred in June probably won’t calve until next March, instead of February.
“That’s the big problem right now,” James said.
“A lot of people rely on our bulls to breed their cows.”
