It’s been dry for so long in central Alberta that Walter Suntjens says he forgot how to drive around sloughs in the field. But that has all changed this spring.More than 200 millimetres of rain have fallen since last autumn near Hanna, Alta., filling sloughs and creating hidden wet spots in fields.Suntjens must pull a sprayer or seed drill out of a mud hole at least twice a day. The family has switched from an air drill to a disc seeder to make it easier to seed their wheat crop.”This is so good, I can’t believe it. There is no bad about this weather,” Suntjens said.”I’d much rather worry about getting stuck once or twice a day.”The past few years of low rainfall have taken their toll on area farmers and ranchers. Some sold their cattle herds and others pared their livestock numbers drastically.This year’s wet weather has revived producers’ hopes, and they have started rebuilding their herds.Suntjens said they bought more cows to help eat the grass in the pasture.”The pasture looks like a golf course.”He estimated it’s the wettest spring in his lifetime. It has boosted pastures and ground water levels, but delayed seeding, especially wheat.”We’re hoping we can go hard to get it in.”Jon Hood of the Municipal District of Taber in southern Alberta said the warm weather of the past week has created ideal seeding weather, despite the delay caused by almost three weeks of rain and snow.”They’re all seeding. It’s good, warm weather,” Hood said.”The dry land guys are happy with the moisture; the irrigation guys, not so much.”Producers who seed potatoes and sugar beets under irrigation are slightly behind schedule because of the wet weather, but it’s not late enough to force them to change seeding plans.”There’s lots of time, in my opinion, but you know how farmers are. They like to have it in the ground,” he said.”Overall it’s good. The sloughs are full, dugouts are full, everybody is content as long as they can keep going.”Tom Simanton, assistant agricultural fieldman with the County of Forty Mile in southern Alberta, said three weeks of wet, snowy weather delayed seeding significantly. He estimates only 15 percent of the crop is in the ground, compared to the 90 percent that would have been seeded by this time in other years.”It was a good delay,” he said.Dugouts and sloughs are full and there is still a lot of water lying in low spots throughout the area, but no one is complaining, he said.”The alternative was no better.”Patricia Rawlek, assistant agricultural fieldman with Lamont County, said the warm weather in north-central Alberta has allowed most farmers to get a good jump on seeding. Rawlek estimates 30 to 40 percent of the seeding is complete in the area north of Edmonton.”We’re seeing more people out.”She said moisture is good but not great. More rain will be needed after seeding is complete.
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