Desperate times meant desperate measures for farmers in eastern Manitoba this spring.
Many fields were too soggy to plant using conventional seeding equipment, but rather than leave them unseeded, farmers such as Edwin Pritchard opted for airplanes or floaters to broadcast the seed.
“It was so soggy we couldn’t control the depth of our air seeder,” said Pritchard, describing two fields in the Carman area that he chose to plant with a floater.
“It just got to the point where we couldn’t use our implements.”
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Close to 100,000 acres were planted with floaters and airplanes in Manitoba this year, mostly to canola, said provincial oilseeds specialist Rob Park.
This was the second year in a row that a wet spring hindered planting efforts in the Red River Valley. In 2004, about 50,000 acres were planted by airplane and floaters, Park said. The floaters have wide tires that enable them to travel across muddy terrain that would bog down other equipment.
Manitoba Agriculture doesn’t consider either to be a best management practice, but Park said it’s difficult to tell growers not to try them when they’re confronted with the alternative of leaving fields unplanted.
“I’m not going to step out there and tell a grower not to do it when his back’s against the wall.”
Manitoba Crop Insurance provides excess moisture coverage, part of which includes a $50 per acre payment on land that cannot be seeded because of excess moisture.
One of the most important tips for planting with a floater or airplane is to harrow the seed into the soil, which helps prevent the seedlings from establishing and then withering if the weather turns dry and a soil crust forms.
This year, Pritchard had two 80-acre fields seeded with a floater. Fertilizer was applied at the same time.
In one field Pritchard harvested eight bushels per acre. There was good germination but the canola crop was drowned by persistently wet weather.
In the other field, however, he harvested an average of 33 bu. of canola per acre. He said he would have fared even better if the crop had not been hit by a hailstorm that swept through his area late in the summer.
“It was a nice looking field all summer. We fungicided it because it did look good.”
Bob Morse owns Morse Brothers Ltd., a custom application business with offices in Starbuck and Brunkild, two Manitoba communities where excess moisture was a problem this spring.
Morse said his company seeded about 10,000 acres of canola by plane and floaters. Those crops generally turned out poorly but Morse said the results were the same regardless of how growers in his area planted their canola.
“We managed to get establishment but the whole crop in general just died after that, whether it was seeded with a drill or whether it was seeded with the airplane or the floater or whatever. It did as well as anything else, but generally speaking, the canola crop in our area was very much a disaster.”
The results in 2004 were better. Canola crops planted that year by floaters and airplanes performed as well as those planted by more conventional means, Morse said.
“It worked out surprising well in 2004. This year it didn’t matter what you did. The rains kept coming and drowned everything out.”
