WINNIPEG (CNS Canada) — It’s still too early to assess how the western Canadian winter wheat crop fared this winter, but there is some uncertainty because of the unseasonably cold April temperatures.
“We start losing cold tolerance, especially in March and going into April now, and that’s when you need to monitor temperatures or for (the crop) to be covered up if you do get some cold temperatures,” said Doug Martin, chair of Winter Cereals Manitoba and a farmer near East Selkirk, Man.
Temperatures across the Prairies have dipped to the -20 C or lower range throughout the end of March and start of April. Temperatures are normally higher than 0 C at this time of year.
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Martin didn’t get any winter wheat planted himself this year because of last fall’s dry conditions, but his neighbours did. Based on conditions around his area, Martin had thought his neighbours’ crops would fare well for most of the winter, but now he isn’t as sure.
“We had a snowfall (in March), which was great and got the crop covered up, but since then we’ve had some melting and now some really cold temperatures,” Martin said.
The situation has been worse in Saskatchewan. Most of the southern portion of the province was bare for most of the winter up until the early March snowstorm.
“We’re very short on moisture and we need more and we need some rain this spring, definitely, but the snow will help for sure,” said Amanda Swanson, a southern Saskatchewan winter wheat agronomist with Ducks Unlimited.
Swanson is optimistic about this year’s winter wheat crop. The winter has been unseasonably cold and dry, but she said it will depend on the spring conditions. A warm, wet spring will be good for winter wheat crops, but a cold, dry spring could cause damage.
Ducks Unlimited won’t have an idea of how the winter wheat crop fared until at least early April. The agronomists usually hold off on doing assessments and digging up plants until producers are seeding or almost halfway done.
“We don’t want growers to be worried that they’re going to have to write off their winter wheat fields,” she said.
“Again, our message is always for guys to be patient when doing spring assessments.”
Swanson said there have been a few areas of Saskatchewan where soil temperatures have come close to causing damage. Winter wheat can handle soil temperatures as cold as -16 C, but she said even if crops are facing a little bit of damage, good spring conditions will help the crop to bounce back.
“I’m hopeful that most of the winter wheat out there made it through the winter, especially those crops that made it to the three-leaf stage in the fall,” she said.
Western Canadian farmers planted 335,000 acres of winter wheat last fall, according to Statistics Canada, which is less than the previous year, when 535,000 acres were planted.
