EMERSON, Man. – Farmers’ fields in the Red River valley of southern Manitoba look like demonstration plots of crop development.
In one field will be a thick and tall crop of winter wheat, fully headed and close to turning. Beside it is a field of skinny, short bean plants that have just emerged from the region’s rich black soil.
But the farmers here haven’t spread out their crops’ development because they wanted to. They all seeded when spring came. The problem this year was that spring happened in small clumps spread over three months.
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“Seeding started at the end of April and went to the end of June,” said John Hollinger, who compiles the weekly crop report for Manitoba Agriculture.
He has the difficult job of describing the Manitoba crop’s development.
“Staging is all over the place, and that’s been a big problem for the guys,” said Hollinger.
Many crops were seeded in early to mid-May, but some farmers were waiting for saturated soils to dry. Unfortunately for them, a blanket of wet snow fell in late May, which worsened the saturation problem and pushed back seeding for a couple of weeks. The situation was further exacerbated by an avalanche of Arctic air that covered the Red River Valley throughout June and into July.
Many farmers near Emerson were only able to get their last fields seeded on June 20 – the deadline for crop insurance. Some farmers kept seeding even after the deadline.
Paul Martens of Prairie Flax Products in Portage la Prairie, Man., said cool, wet conditions have slowed flax development in some areas. Farmers in the northern and higher areas, such as near Riding Mountain National Park, will probably have to worry about frost risk in the fall.
Generally the slow start to the growing season has dashed any hopes that last year’s incredible flax yields could be repeated, Martens said. Farmers who were used to 20-25 bushels to the acre often ended up with 37-39 bu.
“I don’t think that’s going to be there this year,” said Martens.
Some late cereal crops may end up cut as greenfeed, but Larry Vendsel, of oat miller Emerson Milling, said he doesn’t think too many cash crops will suffer this fate in his area.
“There was lots of millet put in, so I think guys will try to get their oats (harvested as grain) and then use their millet for greenfeed,” said Vendsel.
On the weekend hot, summery weather came to southern Manitoba, finally giving crops a chance to get going.
Hollinger said good summer weather will improve Manitoba farmers’ spirits and allow their crops to partially recover from a freakishly cold and wet spring.
“This hot, moist weather certainly will spur them on to growing more quickly than normal,” said Hollinger.
“They still won’t catch up to where they should be at this time of year, but definitely things are a lot better than if temperatures had stayed in the teens.”
