The 2009-10 growing season is off to a slow start due to a chilly April.
In its April 26 crop report, Saskatchewan Agriculture said the cool weather has delayed seeding in most areas of the province and has contributed to poor pasture conditions.
Bill McMurtry, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said people have the right to gripe about the crappy start to spring.
“To no one’s surprise it was below normal (temperatures) right across the Prairies for the month of April,” he said.
The average mean temperature across the grain belt was 3 C in April, compared to a normal daily mean temperature of 4.3 C for that time of year.
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“Generally, across the grain belt we were about 1.3 C below normal and that’s significant. It’s not record-breaking but it is a significant cooling trend,” said McMurtry.
Had it not been for a couple of three-day warm spells where temperatures reached the low 20 C range, the numbers would have been even more stark.
Saskatchewan Agriculture said as of April 26, less than one percent of the crop had been seeded, primarily with peas, lentils and canola.
If the cooling trend persists, it could prove problematic. It would delay crop emergence and establishment, reducing plant populations and rendering them more susceptible to disease and weed and insect pressure, said Grant McLean, cropping management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
“I don’t think anybody is concerned yet, but I think this is always in the back of (farmers’) minds.”
May is the normal seeding time for most producers. As long as the soil warms up enough to allow for planting in the first weeks of May, everything would get back on track in a hurry.
But further delays could be costly because large farming operations have a limited opportunity to get their seeding done.
McLean said pasture conditions are poor across the province due to dry conditions in the west and cool conditions in the east.
“The challenge for many of the livestock producers is that it has been a long winter and feed supplies in some locations were tight,” he said.
Producers have been attempting to stretch resources by allowing their animals to graze on pasture earlier than normal. Those pastures are not recovering as fast as they should due to the cold and dry conditions.
“That may have some ramifications down the road,” said McLean.
McMurtry said the forecast for the month of May is for near normal temperatures in Alberta and above normal in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The 90-day forecast for June, July and August calls for above normal temperatures right across the grain belt.
But he noted that any forecast extending beyond five days is fairly unreliable.
“That needs to be taken with a grain of salt.”
