The recent wet weather could be more of a blessing than a curse to farmers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
There are pockets of land where too much moisture has yellowed crops, but the rains have also bolstered subsoil moisture and increased the region’s overall yield potential.
“If we get some heat, the crops are going to take off,” said Ken Panchuk, Saskatchewan Agriculture’s soil specialist.
“They’ve been looking good.”
Panchuk said on June 21 that the abundant rainfall is not causing a problem with leaching nutrients.
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However, he advised growers who want high protein content in selected fields of durum and wheat to reassess the nutrient needs of those crops. Because of the increased yield potential, a top dressing of nitrogen may be needed in those fields to reach the desired protein content, he said.
Some areas have had more than 200 millimetres of rain this month. If the rains continue, leaching of nutrients could become an issue.
Environment Canada predicts more rainfall, noting that showers are expected on and off until at least early July.
Cabbage maggots in canola and wheat midge are possible concerns in Manitoba. Both pest insects like moist soils.
Producers should be on guard for those pests if surface soils stay damp into July, said Manitoba Agriculture entomologist John Gavloski.
Cabbage maggots hatch on canola plant stems in late June and early July and travel to the roots. They eat the feeder roots and eventually burrow into the taproot.
“This weather will provide the moisture that will get them going and keep their emergence on track.”
Gavloski said wheat crops become resistant to wheat midge once they reach the flowering stage. Mild weather now would help advance wheat fields to that stage.
Saskatchewan Agriculture insect specialist Scott Hartley said the cabbage maggot, sometimes called the canola root maggot, has not been a big problem in his province in recent years.
As for wheat midge, he said a survey last fall in Saskatchewan was encouraging, but farmers should not let their guard down.
“It was one of the better (survey) maps we have seen in a while.”
This month’s cool, wet weather slowed potential damage by flea beetles and grasshoppers.
The threat of flea beetles has all but passed for most canola fields, said Gavloski. The beetles were a concern this spring in Manitoba but did not cause tremendous damage.
“They would really have munched down that stuff if we had had hot, dry weather.”
The outlook for crop diseases is less certain. Early flowering is the key time for sclerotinia in canola. The wet weather could result in a lush canopy that favors the disease when flowering begins, said Penny Pearse, a Saskatchewan Agriculture plant disease specialist.
Cereal leaf diseases also like lush crop canopies. Some tan spot and septoria have been noted in wheat fields, Pearse said, but not in unusual levels.
Meanwhile, ascochyta blight has appeared in chickpea crops in southwestern Saskatchewan.
The blight’s early appearance suggests it will put greater pressure on chickpea fields this year, said Pearse. The disease, spread by spores, is also favored by rain.
Growers concerned about ascochyta blight should scout their fields for hot spots.. The best time to apply a fungicide against ascochyta is when chickpeas are in early bloom, Pearse said.
Ascochyta causes lesions that weaken the host plant.
