Farmers in west-central Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta are caught on the horns – or the antennae – of a dilemma.
They need hot weather to advance their crops after seeding delays set many back by a week to 10 days.
But hot weather will likely release the curse of the two-year drought: millions of grasshoppers.
“If we got four or five days of really hot weather we could see a drastic increase,” said Monty Bender, a Dodsland, Sask., farmer and reeve of the Rural Municipality of Winslow.
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Reeve Louise Singer of the RM of Biggar in west-central Saskatchewan said some farmers in her area have already sprayed three times for grasshoppers.
So far the outbreaks are not general. Her farm does not have a problem but millions of time bombs are lying in the soil, waiting to hatch.
“One fellow told me the ground was yellow with eggs when he just scratched the surface,” said Singer.
Grasshoppers thrive in hot, dry conditions, such as those that afflicted the droughted western Prairies in the past two years.
Big grasshopper populations last year laid eggs in many fields. So far, cool and wet weather in many areas has kept a plague from occurring. Hot weather could unleash them.
On June 11, the Alberta government recognized the potential pest problem by announcing a federal-provincial program that will subsidize grasshopper spraying by up to $4 per acre.
The Alberta agriculture department estimates that could cover one-third of farmers’ spraying costs.
It estimates grasshoppers could cause $80 million to $100 million in damage in Alberta alone.
Hot weather could cause grasshopper problems, but prairie farmers aren’t praying for cool temperatures. Many western prairie crops were seeded later than usual and have often had cool weather since. To catch up to normal development they will need hot days.
“We do need some pickup in terms of warmer temperatures in order to improve the development of the crop,” said Canadian Wheat Board weather analyst Bruce Burnett during a crop condition briefing June 12.
Bender agreed with his view, noting recent rains and cool weather have slowed development of the crops in his area.
He’s hoping his own crops will be advanced enough by the time that summer warmth hits that they will be able to outgrow the damage the bugs will cause.
“We’re caught between a rock and a hard spot,” he said ruefully.
