After weeks of dry weather, rain finally arrived in Manitoba this week. The precipitation should help soybean crops that were starving for moisture, depending on the development stage of the crop.
“I don’t think it’s going to hurt it. It could help with bean size and pod filling to some extent,” said Rob Brunel, who farms near Ste. Rose du Lac, Man.
“It (the rain) might be a tad late, but I don’t think we were extremely short of moisture. We were probably just on the edge.”
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Approximately 10 to 30 millimetres of rain fell on eastern and central Manitoba August 16 and a storm dumped an additional 10 to 50 mm on the province yesterday.
Dennis Lange, a Manitoba Agriculture farm production adviser in Altona and soybean expert, said the rain might have arrived too late for beans in southern Manitoba.
“In this area, here in Altona, we’re approaching that R6 growth stage,” he said, explaining that’s when there is a pod with seed on the main plant stem. “If you look at the top four nodes of the main stem … you have at least one pod that has full seed.”
Soybeans are less advanced in other parts of the province. Those beans, in the R4 and R5 growth stages, should benefit from the rain, Lange said.
“It’s very important in that R4 stage to get some moisture to help with seed filling and seed set.”
Overall, Lange said Manitoba’s soybean crop looks decent, but it’s difficult to predict yield in a dry year.
Brunel, who has seeded beans on 50 percent of his total acres, is satisfied with his crop.
“I’m quite pleased at where we are, development wise,” he said. “We might be a little late, but I don’t have a lot of concerns.”
