Bad weather is complicating plans to grow a record number of soybeans in Manitoba this year.
The initial expectation had been for farmers to plant as many as 700,000 acres, which would have smashed the 2010 record of 528,000 acres, but that was before Manitoba winter extended well into April.
Most Red River Valley soybean growers didn’t start seeding until May 16.
“If you asked me three weeks or a month ago, yeah, we probably would’ve hit it (700,000 acres),” said Brian Jack, a Manitoba Agriculture crop adviser in Altona.
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However, he said growers are still enthusiastic about soybeans because the crop can tolerate the wet conditions that have plagued Manitoba farmers the last several years. As a result, he believes growers will stick with their soybean intentions this year.
“At a minimum, we’re going to be at or above last year’s (acreage) numbers.”
Jack said producers are planting soybeans at the expense of edible bean acres because the dry beans can’t handle wet soil conditions. As a result, he said Manitoba’s edible bean acres may drop by half.
Farmers planted 150,000 acres of dry beans last year.
Roxanne Lewko, executive director of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association, also remains confident that growers will plant soybeans this spring, even if it means an emergency call to the local seed dealer.
“Depending on the area you’re in, you may have to trade varieties for an even earlier maturing one,” she said. “Then it becomes an issue of seed supply.”
Rick Storuschuk, an agronomist with GJ Chemical in Arnaud, Man., said sufficient supply of shorter-season varieties is available if producers have to seed a portion of their acres in late May or early June.
Crop insurance deadline for soybeans is June 6 in the southern Red River Valley and May 30 elsewhere.
