Alberta has good rainfall
Saskatoon newsroom
Where were you in May of 1964? We were there, and this is what we reported.
A storm beginning on May 1 and continuing into this week highlighted the Alberta Wheat Pool’s first crop report of the 1964 growing season.
Moving in from Montana, the storm front has brought rainfall as far north as Edmonton but the heaviest rains were in southern Alberta, with as much as three inches recorded at some points.
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April snowstorms, the new moisture will boost subsoil reserves from previously dry levels caused by a nearly rainless fall and the absence of winter snows.
Top soil moisture
Generally speaking appears adequate for germination throughout the province, but it stands about 10 percent below 1963 levels in the 70 percent of normal range.
The Pool report says this, of course, does not reflect the full impact of the weekend storm. However, in the Legal, Edmonton Thorsby and Wetaskiwin area topsoil reserves are considerably depleted.
Low stubble figure
Sub-soil reserves for summerfallow and stubble stand at 70 percent and 57 percent of normal respectively, compared with 70 and 71 percent of normal a year ago.
Current low stubble figures may well be the result of a mild winter and the lack of snow cover, much of which is retained as moisture.
Fieldwork and seeding are about 10 days behind the progress of a year ago. Cool, damp weather has been the cause in both southern and northern Alberta and the Peace River region, while high winds with accompanying soil drift and a lack of moisture has kept farmers off the land In other northern and some east-central districts.
It is expected that field work will be fairly general this week with seeding progressing rapidly, About 12 percent of the wheat crop has been sown In the Medicine Hat region, but seeding overall is only two percent completed, compared with 14 percent a year ago.
Intended acreage figures show wheat increased by five percent over 1963, while oats, barley, rye and flax are down slightly. Reports indicate that rapeseed acreage will be increased in northern districts, particularly around St. Paul, Waking and Grimshaw and Fort Saskatchewan, too.
Welcome rains also came to most parts of Saskatchewan last weekend. Many districts got as much as an inch.
The heaviest rainfall was In the south, where dry conditions and high winds had caused considerable soil drifting.
A week earlier, farmlands in many areas were covered with dust clouds, reminiscent of the 1930s, but the steady downpour changed that.
Only scattered seeding had been done in the province because of high winds and cool weather, but with clear weather, seeding should be general by next weekend.
