Farmers in southwestern Manitoba are learning that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
Wet weather is being blamed for crop diseases that are threatening a variety of crops throughout the region. Fungicides are in strong demand as farmers attempt to prevent damage.
Bill Hildebrand is keeping a close watch on his fields north of Boissevain. Diseases are posing a threat to everything from his peas and lentils to his wheat, oats and barley.
The problem, said Hildebrand, is that it has rained heavily in his area for more than a month. And when it’s not raining, the humidity is still high.
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“The conditions are ripe for disease,” said Hildebrand, who has already begun spraying some of his fields to keep the problem in check.
Scott Day, provincial ag rep for the Boissevain area, is well acquainted with the farmers’ concerns. His phone rings constantly with calls from people wanting to know how to prevent diseases such as sclerotinia in canola fields and septoria and tan spot in wheat.
“It’s just been crazy,” Day said last week. “We’ve never seen anything like this in recent memory. It’s totally because of the moisture.”
Problems caused by rain
The story isn’t much different in the Hamiota area northwest of Brandon. It received about 200 millimetres of rain in a one-month period, said ag rep John Patterson. That has spawned “all kinds of diseases” in cereal crops and conditions are prime for sclerotinia to invade canola crops as well.
The conditions have boosted demand for the services of companies offering ground and aerial application of fungicides. The Shur-Gro Farm Services Centre at Killarney is among those racing to keep pace with demand, said manager Ken Harms.
“We’ve never struggled as much as we did this year in terms of crop spraying and trying to keep up,” Harms said.
The wet weather continued into last week, although it was occasionally interrupted with periods of clear skies and temperatures above 30 C. Although the balmy weather was welcome news to most people, it may not bode well for crops.
“If anything, it’ll increase the problem,” Harms said. “Rainfall is one thing, but the high humidity and heat creates a better environment for the diseases.”
Although farmers have the option of spraying against those diseases, the benefit of applying fungicides has to be weighed against the cost. For farmers such as Hildebrand, that equation can be a complex one.
“You have to keep up with the economics of it,” he said, “and have faith that there’s a good crop out there.
“We’re not going to spray everything, but we’re not going to walk away from it either.”
