Mother Nature has been doing the work of southern Alberta’s irrigation system this spring, keeping row crops moist and in most cases thriving.
Seventy to 120 millimetres of rain fell on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains from Calgary to Lethbridge last week, bringing welcome moisture to sugar beet and potato acres and boding well for soil moisture and reservoir reserves heading into the growing season.
“We’re not short of water this year,” said Brent Paterson, director for irrigation and farm water with Alberta Agriculture.
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“We’re in very good shape this year. Of course, always the concern is what happens next year, but I know that all of the internal reservoirs within virtually all of the (irrigation) districts are at absolute peak capacity right now, so between that and what we would expect to see in our on-stream reservoirs, we’re in very, very good shape. There will be no restrictions this year whatsoever.”
Edzo Kok, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta, said almost all intended potato acres have been planted and soil moisture is good, with the exception of a pocket between Grassy Lake and Bow Island, which has too much moisture.
“We’re probably better off than most of the country,” Kok said.
Potatoes are beginning to emerge, which is a much better scenario than last year, when snow, rain and cold slowed emergence and later development.
“Soil conditions were so much better this year,” Kok said.
“The soil warmed up and our seed went in in good shape, so we were expecting that we would get much quicker emergence.”
Producers planted 40,000 acres of potatoes in southern Alberta this year. They will be watching for blight, which infected some crops last year.
“It’s something that you usually don’t get rid of in one year, so if you had it one year, you’re going to have to be diligent for a couple years to make sure you can eradicate it,” Kok said.
Agricultural superintendent Andrew Llewelyn-Jones of Lantic Sugar in Taber, Alta., said last week’s rain was welcomed by most sugar beet growers because the soil surface was getting dry.
Only 100 to 200 acres of the total 34,000 acres remain to be seeded, and some crops have emerged.
“The beets are coming up well,” said Llewelyn-Jones.
“We’d like some sunshine and some nicer days, but other than that, a lot of the fields now, the beets are emerging. Weed control is going to be a priority for a lot of the growers.”
He said wet fields may hinder the timing of spraying, and flea beetles are being monitored.
Most southern Alberta grain corn has also been planted, said DeKalb agronomist Bruce MacKinnon, but rain hindered completion of all intended acres.
June 1 is generally considered too late for planting grain corn and possibly too late for silage corn, so grow-e rs may have to consider other options for those unseeded acres, MacKinnon said.
Even so, conditions are generally better than last year at this time.
The flea beetles spotted in sugar beet crops are also an issue for canola production in the region.
Troy Prosofsky of the Canola Council of Canada said flea beetles are now feeding on volunteer canola so growers should watch for damage on new crop.
He said growers should check field perimeters and the undersides of leaves.
Twenty-five percent leaf defoliation is cause to consider spraying.
Canola can withstand up to 50 percent leaf loss and still produce a crop, but Prosofsky said that assumes there is a good plant stand of seven to 14 plants per sq. foot.
However, he said the good moisture conditions and several days of 20 C temperatures would soon help this year’s crop outgrow insect pressure.
