When Brent Salewski went to bed on May 17, the temperature gauge read Ð1 C. The Wilkie, Sask., farmer knew he was in for a restless night.
The mercury dropped six more degrees by the time he woke on the morning of May 18 and his canola plants had turned black.
“It was a long spell for them,” he said.
Most of the crop was advanced enough that it was wiped out.
“We dug it out and it was all mush down underneath the ground,” said Salewski.
Read Also
Moe and Harrison tour Ag In Motion site
Ag in Motion 2025’s more than 560 exhibitors haven’t let the smoke blanketing the province dampen their enthusiasm as the Langham farm show got under way on Tuesday morning.
He and his father were forced to reseed 220 of the 300 acres of Liberty Link canola they put in the ground during the first week of May. There was only one late-seeded field where the damage wasn’t extensive enough to warrant reseeding.
A short distance away, Salewski’s brother-in-law Mike McKenzie fared better. His crop started off black after the frost but turned yellow again a few days later.
“I was pretty damn sure I’d be reseeding,” said McKenzie, who also farms south of Wilkie.
But as of May 21 it looked like his 80 acres of Roundup Ready canola would survive despite enduring Ð7 C temperatures and a “nasty wind.
“My wife lost some plants in her greenhouse. And it was heated,” said the bemused farmer.
His canola, on the other hand, seems to be getting better by the day.
“I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a crop there,” said McKenzie.
The frost affected almost all of western Saskatchewan but the most severe temperatures occurred in the Unity, Wilkie and North Battleford regions where Environment Canada recorded temperatures as low as Ð8 C.
Sherrilyn Phelps, Saskatchewan Agriculture soils and crops agrologist for the northwest region, called it a severe frost that lasted four or five hours at temperatures well below the point where 50 percent of the plants should have been killed.
“Canola that was up was really hit hard but surprisingly we’re actually seeing regrowth in some of these plants,” said Phelps.
“We were really surprised because those plants did not look well.”
Canola is a main crop in that region but Phelps estimates only about one percent of the acreage was affected by the frost because a lot hadn’t emerged by May 18.
Most producers who seeded early and had some canola above ground waited a few days to see if the crop would rebound and were pleasantly surprised.
“It’s amazing what they can recover from,” said Phelps.
But some like Salewski, faced with complete loss, wanted to reseed as soon as possible. Agriculture Canada’s suggested cut-off date for replanting Argentine canola is May 25.
Salewski finished reseeding May 20. There was still adequate soil moisture for germination, but there is some concern the crop might not come off in time to avoid a killing frost at harvest.
