When he looks out across the fields in his area, Stan Moffat sees the promise of ample moisture for growing a crop this spring.
His farm in southwestern Manitoba already had plenty of soil moisture going into the winter and his fields now are blanketed under snow, thanks partly to a storm that blew through his area last week.
In a province where many farmers were confronted with too much moisture last year, Moffat would be content with moderate snowfall between now and spring seeding.
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“We don’t need a whole lot of moisture in the spring as long as we get the timely rains,” he said, while doing chores at his family’s farm southeast of Killarney. “It’ll just make for trouble again.”
By contrast, Lorne Hickey has his fingers crossed that more snow will fall over the next month or two. He farms near Lethbridge, where snow has been scarce this winter and temperatures have been unusually mild.
“We’ve had very little snow over the winter and it’s melted within a few days of coming, for the most part.”
“We’re well below normal. We certainly could use a little bit more moisture before spring.”
Moffat and Hickey help depict the variable snowfall that is typical across the Prairies. Less typical are the unusually mild temperatures that embraced the region for much of this winter.
Provincial crop and soil moisture specialists say it is too early to worry about the effects of the balmy temperatures or the snowfall that has accumulated.
Many regions of the Prairies went into the winter with good soil moisture, and snowfall patterns could change dramatically between now and planting season.
“No crops have been lost in the winter,” said Alberta Agriculture soil moisture specialist Ralph Wright. “I think that’s the bottom line here. If they (farmers) don’t think that way, they’re not going to be able to sleep at night.”
One of the things uppermost in farmers’ minds is how this winter may affect winter wheat crops and alfalfa stands, especially in areas where the mild temperatures have been coupled with limited snow cover.
Jake Davidson, executive director of Winter Cereals Canada, said many calls are from producers just getting acquainted with growing winter cereals and who planted those crops on fields that had been summerfallowed or chem fallowed.
Winter cereal crops that have good snow cover and the added benefit of mild temperatures should overwinter well, said Davidson. Fields that got little snow or where the snow melted are of greater concern, as they create a layer of ice and the potential for winterkill.
“The real key with winter cereals is don’t panic, sit back, wait until the spring,” Davidson said. “Good things come to those who wait.
“Let the crop have a chance to get going in the spring. Then go out and take a look at it.”
Hickey has noted some greening of the landscape in the Lethbridge area. Some trees are on the verge of budding due to the exceptionally mild weather, he said.
However, Alberta Agriculture crop specialist Harry Brooks said last week he has not yet heard of winter wheat crops breaking dormancy in that province.
In Saskatchewan, especially in areas with limited snowfall, the milder temperatures may have been a saving grace for forage crops, said Saskatchewan Agriculture forage conversion specialist Andre Bonneau.
He said a cold snap could hurt those crops, particularly alfalfa.
“We’ve been kind of lucky,” he said in a Feb. 8 interview. “It hasn’t been really very cold yet, but if we get some of these -30 C temperatures, we could start seeing a lot of damage to some of those forage crops.”
One concern for alfalfa in Manitoba is the potential for ice forming on fields where mild temperatures melted the snow.
Forage could become starved for oxygen, said Glenn Friesen, Manitoba Agriculture business development specialist in forages. However, he noted that alfalfa stems protruding through the ice can alleviate that risk by carrying air down into the plants.
Friesen said he doubts that temperatures in Manitoba have been mild enough this winter to bring alfalfa crops out of dormancy.
In heavier clay soils with a lot of moisture going into the winter, there may be the potential for heaving caused by the ground thawing and freezing. This can push the crown of alfalfa plants upward, snapping off the roots 15 to 20 centimetres below the soil surface. However, for that to occur, it would take at least a week of temperatures above 10 C followed by a week or so of freezing weather.
In Alberta, growers concerned about the possibility of a dry spring should start thinking about how that might affect surface water supplies such as dugouts.
For crop producers, investigating ways to limit soil disturbance could be key. For growers who have gone to one-pass seeding systems, reducing speed when planting can limit soil disturbance.
“Dropping back a little bit on speed reduces that disturbance from the shank going through the crop,” said Peter Gamache, team leader of Reduced Tillage Linkages in Alberta. “That translates into less loss of moisture through the exposure of the soil.”
Converting to openers that cause less soil disturbance when seeding is another option. Gamache said he welcomes calls from producers looking for ideas about how to conserve moisture when cropping.
Soil moisture going into winter was generally good across most of Alberta, said Wright, the province’s soil moisture specialist. He noted that the winter months, especially February, typically are a time of limited precipitation, especially when compared with spring.
“That’s one of the things we try to hold the dogs at bay with. It’s supposed to be dry in February, so don’t worry until March.”
One of the more immediate challenges for producers this winter has been an upsurge in insect problems in stored grain, said Grant McLean, cropping management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture. The mild weather added to that problem.
“I think people are running into situations where they have grain bugs showing up. With the milder temperatures, the grain just never cooled off and some of the grain went into storage in not the best of conditions.”
Maintaining quality of grain stored on the ground has been even more challenging, he said.
The unusually warm weather on the Prairies was caused by a low pressure system positioned in northwestern British Columbia in December. It funneled mild air from the Pacific Ocean into the prairie region, said Environment Canada meteorologist Suzanne D’Amours.
“I would certainly say that temperatures have been unusually mild across the prairies and in many cases have broken records. Some of the records were daily, some were monthly averages.”
