Floods in Manitoba and dry patches in Alberta have created a wide range of soil conditions for prairie farmers.
Bert Graham, of Manitoba Agriculture, said outside the floodplains of the Red River, some farmers on the west side of the province are seeding into moist soil.
In the Dauphin region to the north, a few timely showers are needed to moisten topsoil. However subsoil moisture in the root zone is good, he said.
In Saskatchewan soil moisture is generally good throughout the province. On the east side, the agriculture department reports some wet conditions. In the southern grainbelt about 10 percent of this year’s crop is in the ground where conditions are also satisfactory.
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In Alberta, soil moisture varies and only a small amount of seeding has started.
Al Howard of Alberta Agriculture monitors soil moisture every year. This spring his crew found a dry band that extends east of Highway 2, south of the Red Deer River and southeast of Calgary.
South of the Oldman River conditions are also drier than average.
At Oyen, in the traditionally dry east-central region, soil moisture is good.
While there was a lot of snow in the fields this winter, less water than expected was absorbed.
“We had anticipated moisture conditions would be better. We had a good snowpack and didn’t see a lot of water on the fields as snow melt was taking place,” said Howard.
They also see evidence of erosion from water runoff. There were fall rains but Howard suspects an early frost sealed the ground and moisture from snow melt didn’t get through.
With last summer’s dry conditions in the south, water reserves were sucked up by crops leaving moisture supplies below average .
In central and northern regions conditions are wetter. North of Innisfail there is plenty of water in the fields and the soil is in good shape for seeding.
In the north some areas report up to 20 centimetres of soil moisture.
“If anything there’s going to be problems with moisture,” he said.
