While farmers made progress with seeding last week, some in Saskatchewan are becoming bogged down in this spring’s wet fields.
Showers in late May did little to help dry moist soil and further slowed seeding in the region.
Ed Tanner, a crop development specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture in Tisdale, said producers are seeding around potholes, picking drier fields to seed first and hoping late May rain doesn’t amount to much.
“One quarter to a half inch (six to 12 millimetres) is no big deal; two inches (50 mm) and we’re out of the field for a few days,” he said. “The subsoil is very wet; it won’t take much rain to flood it.”
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Manitoba and Alberta reported good seeding progress over the last two weeks, with spotty showers causing delays in some areas, especially after a weekend of rain.
The Saskatchewan crop report indicate areas of excess moisture in central and northern Saskatchewan. More than one quarter of the province’s crop reporters rated topsoil moisture as surplus.
In the northeast, seeding was most advanced around Melfort, while Hudson Bay was just beginning as of May 24. Tanner said areas south of Melfort, Nipawin and Hudson Bay and eastern regions are among the wettest.
However, he said there is good news for those lucky enough to plant, with crops germinating and growing quickly.
Farmers who haven’t seeded by June 1 might consider switching from wheat to barley and canola. Tanner said the choices have come down to either switching or leaving the wettest fields unseeded.
Travis Eldstrom of Hudye Soil Services in Kamsack, Sask., said the abundance of moisture is leading to an abundance of weeds.
“A lot of guys have not done their seeding and just about have to spray some of the stuff they seeded first,” he said.
Areas north of Kamsack, Canora and Ryan are considerably wetter than the southern part of the region, he added.
Eldstrom expected many producers around Sturgis to chem fallow land this year while others might be forced to broadcast seeds onto wet areas.
He said farmers in his area have until mid-June at the latest to plant the crop to allow enough time to mature in the fall.
