Time ran out for many farmers last week when the first killing frost hit crops across the Prairies.
As a result, says the Canadian Wheat Board, the quality of this year’s wheat crop, already projected to be just 45 percent in the two top grades, will dip even more.
“It’s safe to say at this point that that number is going to be reduced further but we haven’t done the analysis yet to come up with a new one,” said Stuart McMillan, crop and weather analyst for the CWB.
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“With this combination of extensive frost, late maturity and delayed harvest, there’s no way we can escape damage,” he said.
Environment Canada meteorologist Albert Skiba said the frost moved like a wave west to east across the region beginning the night of Sept. 16 and through the weekend.
Heavy frost is considered to be below -2 C.
Alberta was hit first, with temperatures ranging from -2 in the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat areas to -8 C around Red Deer and Edmonton regions.
By the night of Sept. 17 and early morning hours of Sept. 18, most of eastern Alberta, Saskatchewan and western Manitoba had all experienced temperatures of -4 C to -5 C.
And by Sept. 19, eastern Manitoba also had frost and minus temperatures.
“The only place where it was patchy was in the Red River Valley,” Skiba said.
Crop quality will be downgraded as a result of the widespread frost.
David Marit, who farms in south central Saskatchewan near Fife Lake, said his spring wheat crop was already ripe and should be all right, but other crops would be damaged.
“The last 400 to 500 acres (planted) are sure going to be downgraded,” he said.
Canola that had just been swathed before the frost hit was significantly damaged and immature cereals were also hurt. For the most part, pulses were already harvested.
Marit said the temperature at his
farm dropped to -3 C.
“The real issue is that it froze for so long,” he said Sept. 20. “It was freezing at midnight and it was still freezing at eight in the morning.”
He also noted that September did not offer up a warm spell like it did last year, which would have helped mature crops before the frost.
Warm weather would still help farmers get the crop off, but the frost has done its damage.
McMillan said some regions have dodged frost damage so far, notably southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.
Northern Alberta has suffered so much frost damage that further below-zero temperatures won’t do much more damage.
“In terms of quality, I remain as worried about the impact of continued wetness as continued frost,” he said.
He believes there will be enough good quality wheat to satisfy demand from CWB customers.
