If there is such a thing as a textbook approach for seeding a crop on the Canadian Prairies, those textbooks should be piled up and incinerated in 2003.
Everything has gone topsy-turvy this spring.
Farmers in Alberta and southern Saskatchewan are usually the first out of the gates, while Manitobans are perennially bringing up the rear. But that age-old pattern has been flipped during this strange crop year.
Bob Anderson, a retired producer from Dugald, Man., said the crops in his neck of the woods are all planted for a change.
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“Last year most people didn’t start seeding until about now,” said Anderson, who rents 11/2 sections of land to a tenant who has already taken off on a fishing trip.
“(Last year’s) crop didn’t really emerge until well into June but now there’s an awful lot of fields greening up nicely, with cereals emerging fairly well.”
Farmers in his area would normally be wrestling with “mud troubles” or facing rain interruptions at this stage of spring. But the few millimetres of rain that fell during this year’s seeding only provided enough of a respite to take an afternoon nap and get back to work.
On the flip side of that coin is Sheila Backman, who farms near Consul, Sask. Her husband hasn’t put one seed in the ground.
Backman said they would normally have been going full bore three weeks ago, but the fields are too muddy to risk entry with heavy equipment. Their farm has received 50 mm of rain since the beginning of May and the forecast on May 15 was calling for weekend showers.
“We would have preferred to be out but we’re not in a total panic yet,” said Backman, from her farm located in the southwestern corner of the province.
It’s an area that had been through three years of drought prior to the much-talked-about dry spell of 2002.
“Down in this corner of the world we were kind of feeling like, ‘where were you guys when we had the drought?’ “
Last spring started out dry, so much so that producers were afraid of working the land for fear of losing their parched topsoil.
But “phenomenal amounts” of rain arrived in mid-June and it has been wet there ever since.
The Backmans didn’t finish harvesting their 2002 crop until Dec. 18 and now they’re facing a seeding delay in 2003. But it’s cattle country and nobody is complaining about the excess water.
“We’re very, very dry country down here. It would be really hard for us to complain about rain any time,” said Backman.
Friends and neighbours who aren’t busy pulling tractors, trucks and drills out of the mud are laughing about the delay, saying they never thought they’d see the day they were hoping it would stop raining.
Weather watchers say farmers throughout large portions of Saskatchewan and Alberta are in the same boat.
Environment Canada meteorologist Bob Cormier said central Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan have received twice as much early spring rain compared to their 30-year averages.
Southern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan and central and northern Manitoba are also wet, but southern and eastern Manitoba is dry.
“There is a marked contrast between the western Prairies and the extreme eastern Prairies across southern Manitoba,” said Cormier.
Those weather conditions have led to a reversal in normal seeding patterns.
Early last week the Canadian Wheat Board issued an unusual seeding progress report. Alberta had fallen “significantly behind normal” with less than 10 percent of the crop in the ground. Planting progress in Saskatchewan was estimated at eight percent, while Manitoba was far ahead of schedule with 70 percent of the crop in the ground. By the end of last week that number had risen to 85 percent.
“It’s sort of the reverse situation this year,” said Bruce Burnett, the board’s director of weather and crop surveillance.
He said extreme moisture conditions have created problems with unharvested acres from last year’s crop and have delayed seeding in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“Things are getting quite wet in these regions and that’s going to limit the ability to get back on the land.”
But the rains have been welcomed by producers in most regions of the two provinces, which are coming off two years of intense drought.
“That will give us enough usable moisture to get us through into the first or second week of June without having any concerns about how much moisture we’re going to have around for germination of the crop,” said Burnett.
“As long as we don’t get delayed by another major storm system that comes through and sort of socks us in for three or four days with moderate to heavy rainfall, I think planting should be OK.”
But there are still some areas of concern, said Cormier. A large portion of drought-ravaged west-central Saskatchewan has considerable moisture deficits to make up.
In other regions, such as the Saskatoon area, there’s enough moisture for germination but more rain has to fall for crop development.
“Not everybody is out of the woods yet,” said Cormier.
But the majority of prairie farmers have had their New Year’s wishes come true. Those in southeastern Manitoba have less rain than usual and those in drought-stricken regions of Alberta and Saskatchewan have been blessed with a deluge.
Anderson said the only thing producers in his district are concerned about are market prices.
“The crop is off to a good start,” he said.
And while farmers in Consul are itching to get out on the land, there has “never, ever” been a crop that didn’t get seeded in that neck of the woods due to too much rain.
“I don’t think people are ready to go and pull their hair out yet,” said Backman.
