Excessive rainfall could produce crop losses as high as 20 percent in the mixed farming zone of Manitoba’s Interlake.
Dean Stoyanowski, farm production adviser with Manitoba Agriculture, said Riverton, Arborg and Fisher Branch received 40 to 50 millimetres on the weekend.
“Most gauges are running about 100 mm over the last eight days (June 8-16),” he said.
Typically, the region benefits from its close proximity to the lakes and timely rain most years.
“Last year, we got a big blast and then nothing else,” he recalled, citing Canada Day rainfall in excess of 150 mm.
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Stoyanowski said there was good absorption of the many water ponds in the district, which grows cereals, oilseeds, peas, soybeans and forages.
Winter wheat is handling the moisture the best, particularly around Arborg, he said.
Manitoba Agriculture’s weekly crop report noted precipitation ranged from 21 to 50 mm, with cooler than average temperatures in the Interlake last week.
Recent high levels of precipitation around Fisher Branch, Arborg and Riverton have limited herbicide applications.
In the south Interlake, rainfall has caused stress in low lying areas, with crops turning a pale green.
The most advanced canola is up to the four and early five leaf stage, although plant populations and leaf staging are extremely variable.
Flax is 2.5 to 7.5 centimetres tall, with many fields displaying chlorosis due to excess moisture.
Early seeded cereals are up to the five-leaf stage, with general crop development ranging from the three to five leaf stage.
Winter wheat is in the flag leaf stage, soybeans are in the unifoliate leaf stage and sunflowers are up to the four leaf stage. Alfalfa hay has an average height of half a metre, with buds present on the most advanced plants.
Stoyanowski called this spring’s rainfall extreme, even for an area where moisture is not usually a problem.
He hoped a forecast of sunny skies would help plants advance.
“If we get the heat, we’ll be looking all right,” Stoyanowski said. “I’m not foreseeing hay shortages just yet.”
Commenting on the mood of local farmers, he said those standing in the rain on the weekend were admittedly dampened by the continuing precipitation but most welcomed it.
“It’s a mixed farming area and we need rains and warm weather for hay and pastures and forage seed crops to get going.”
Hay lands and native pastures, lagging behind by as much as two weeks in their development, are now starting to perk up.
Many producers were still feeding hay to their animals and postponing their move to summer pastures.
