Thousands of acres in Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan could go unseeded this spring or be planted to crops suited for greenfeed because rain has drenched fields.
Marc and Claude Bruneau were struggling through soggy soils at their farm near the central Manitoba community of St. Claude.
“It’s all mud,” Marc said. “The tractor’s full of mud. The planter’s full of mud.
“We’re making a little bit of headway here, but we’re still falling behind a bit.”
The Bruneaus had more than 3,000 acres to plant this spring. Much of that was done before wet weather arrived in mid-May.
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Since then, they have been trying to get the last few hundred acres planted. They had 250 acres left to seed on the morning of June 14.
Many areas of southern Manitoba have received precipitation well above normal this spring and there are places, such as Boissevain, where precipitation has been more than double the norm.
With the seeding season winding up for crops other than greenfeed, Manitoba Crop Insurance is anticipating it could get more than 2,000 claims for fields that could not be planted this spring because of too much moisture.
As well, the insurance corporation already has received more than 700 reseeding claims, which were necessary due to the cool, wet weather.
“Some of the stuff that was planted early just didn’t germinate,” said David Koroscil, manager of sales and service for Manitoba Crop Insurance. “It just rotted in the ground.”
More recently, there have been claims coming in for drowned crops, he said.
Areas of southern Saskatchewan have had more than double the normal precipitation this spring. Coronach, which sits near the United States border, recorded 242 millimetres between April 1 and June 11.
Other communities in southern Saskatchewan, such as Assiniboia and Estevan, had surpassed 180 mm as of last week, giving them above normal precipitation.
Claims for unseeded acres because of excess moisture have been low in Saskatchewan so far, but more claims are probable.
“We are aware of some areas of the province where even if the sun does shine, producers won’t be able to seed by June 20,” said Shawn Jaques, manager of customer service for Saskatchewan Crop Insurance.
Earlier this week, farmers in some municipalities in southeastern Saskatchewan had as much as 40 percent of cropland still unseeded, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture.
However, there are some areas in Saskatchewan with below normal precipitation, mostly in the central and west-central areas.
