CAMROSE, Alta. – All Rhonda and Charles Jenkins can do is look out their window at the drizzle and hope for sunshine.
“We haven’t done any seeding. We’ve done nothing, absolutely nothing,” said Rhonda, of Grassland, Alta.
While the fields are not saturated on their farm north of Edmonton, it’s too wet to think about spring work.
It is no different than other farmers across the Prairies where seeding has been pushed back by as much as three weeks.
In Alberta, historically field work has started around April 27. This year it has been delayed to about May 4, said Wendy Boje, crop statistician with Alberta Agriculture’s market analysis and statistics branch.
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Despite the delay, Boje said “it’s not time to panic yet.”
If the cold weather continues, some farmers will rethink their plans for longer maturing crops like spring wheat and Argentine canola, she said.
During the past winter, temperatures across the province were 3.2 degrees C below normal and it’s taking longer for the soil to warm.
“We’d like to see the soil a little warmer before putting the seed in. While the moisture is excellent, we need warm temperatures.”
Cool soils also make phosphorus deficiency problems more likely for the barley crop, said the branch’s soil and crop diagnostic centre.
Too cold for germination
In Alberta Wheat Pool’s first crop report of the season, very little seeding was reported, with soil temperatures generally too cold for germination.
It’s not much better elsewhere.
Seeding is about a week to 10 days behind normal in Saskatchewan, said Terry Karwandy, agriculture economist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
There have been reports of some farmers in the northwest and southwest parts of the province starting in on early seed work, but wet weather in the eastern half will keep farmers out of the field for another two to three weeks, she said.
“It’s certainly cool out there.”
The delay getting seed in the ground may mean problems with wheat midge, said Karwandy. Studies have shown the earlier farmers get wheat seeded, the less damage is incurred by wheat midge.
Dave Campbell expects some Manitoba farmers to be “scratching around” this week.
Farmers in the southwest and around Portage la Prairie should be the first on the fields, said Campbell, senior forage specialist with Manitoba Agriculture in Carman.
It will be at least two or three weeks before flood waters recede in the Red River Valley, allowing farmers there to seed.
While the delayed dates may force farmers to switch from higher-priced crops like corn, they are not upset. Their second choices of wheat and barley also have strong prices, said Campbell.
He said it won’t take long for farmers to get in the fields once the weather warms up.
