Recent rain and snow have changed soil moisture conditions in Saskatchewan only slightly – the wet areas are now really wet and the dry areas are still dry.
Although the provincial agriculture department doesn’t examine subsoil moisture conditions until closer to freeze-up, agrologist Terry Bedard said current topsoil maps show the southern half of the province is drier than the north.
That fits with what most producers experienced this growing season.
In the southwest, Ross Beierbach said cooler temperatures and about 25 millimetres of rain and snow over the last couple of weeks eased the situation somewhat but not enough to fill dugouts.
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Beierbach ranches south of Maple Creek, Sask. He said spring rain totalled about 50 millimetres and ended the first week of June.
“Our hay didn’t amount to a whole lot,” he said. “And our greenfeed, some of it was a third of other years. Some wasn’t even good enough to cut.”
He usually grazes cattle about 10 months of the year, but the pastures didn’t grow. He will be shipping some cows south of Regina within a few weeks where they can graze on stubble.
Aston Chipanshi, a Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration climatologist, said cattle and forage producers throughout the southwest are worried about having enough feed and water for winter.
The on-farm water supply across the southern Prairies declined over the summer, even for domestic use, he said. Significant water shortages are also occurring in the Peace River region, and the northern and eastern regions of Manitoba.
“Average to above average fall and winter precipitation will be essential to replenish soil moisture, water supplies and stream flows in the areas currently in abnormally dry or drought situations,” PFRA wrote in a fall agroclimate outlook.
But the same report suggests it’s unlikely there will be enough fall precipitation to recharge soil moisture and water supplies.
Chipanshi said drought is typically a bigger problem than flooding because it is usually more extensive.
However, those in northeast and east-central Saskatchewan were unable to seed much of their acreage this spring because it was too wet. An estimated 1.8 million acres went unseeded in 2006.
Bedard said drawing a line on a provincial map from Kindersley to Yorkton would highlight the difference.
Soil moisture north of that line is described as surplus to adequate.
“Below, it’s short to very short,” she said.
Bedard talks to about 300 crop reporters each week. On Sept. 25 she said 56 percent in the southeast were reporting topsoil moisture as short to very short. In the southwest, 36 percent reported those conditions.
“The southwest had no recharge over the summer,” she said. The southeast started off well but dried out in the heat.
Chipanshi said producers should take action now to “reduce the danger that lies ahead.”
Programs to help producers buy and transport feed or defer taxes on sold animals have traditionally helped those in a drought situation.
Beierbach said he will sell some cows but it isn’t practical to sell too many.
