Prairie farmers have seeding on their minds. Some are itching to get into the field, while others have been scratching around for weeks.
Spring field activity inevitably brings its own annual ritual at the Producer; namely a discussion about the weekly crop report, which we habitually publish from mid-May until the completion of harvest.
Newsroom types gather to discuss the utility of the weekly crop report for our readers. While there are times in the growing season when many farmers are too busy to read a report, we figure there are also times when they welcome news on moisture conditions and insect and disease pressures in their region and in other parts of the Prairies.
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As well, the report tends to support the somehow comforting thought that wherever a farmer lives, there are other farmers whose crop conditions are worse -Êand better too.
A prairie-wide weekly crop synopsis is not an easy thing to gather, particularly since Alberta Agriculture reduced its agricultural extension services and Saskatchewan is about to follow. Thankfully, Manitoba has an extensive report available to farmers and the media, although pending reorganization in the department may affect that.
In any case, the process of writing a crop report requires that the assigned reporters phone a number of widespread sources in many regions to get a sense of crop progress and its related challenges.
And in keeping with the newspaper adage that “it ain’t news if the train don’t crash,” sources tend to mention only the problems. If we’re not careful, the crop report can become a litany of disasters not truly representative of conditions in a region.
Reporters are trained to gather, confirm and compile data, so if they’re having difficulty navigating far-flung sources and anecdotal evidence, it would be even more difficult for time-pressed farmers.
So, at our annual crop report meeting, we inevitably conclude that a reliable weekly crop summary is a useful service we can provide to our readers.
That’s the only thing we need to know because that makes the effort worthwhile.
Thus our weekly crop report will be a regular feature come mid-May, when seeding data becomes available. It will consist of a prairie-wide summary, compiled by various reporters using reliable sources.
Major crop news, such as amazing bumper crops, flood or drought reports, heavy insect or disease pressures, hailstorms and the like, will require separate stories.
We hope you’ll find this summary useful and if so, that you’ll let us know.
