Too much water has become the biggest cause of crop loss on the Prairies. It’s changing how we farm.
Many of the lessons of the past no longer seem to apply.
There is still a lingering worry in the driest regions about the return of drought, but even in the Palliser triangle farming practices are evolving or regressing, depending on how you look at it.
In the 1980s, field shelter belts were going to be the answer to drifting topsoil. Today, many poorly placed shelter belts are a nuisance because of ever larger equipment.
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Besides, continuous cropping and direct seeding have almost made wind erosion a non-issue.
These days, more shelter belts are being ripped out than planted.
Meanwhile, tillage is making a major comeback. Sometimes it is to get rid of ruts caused by spraying and/or combining when the ground is wet. Other times, tillage is needed to cut through heavy crop residue or reclaim field areas that could not be seeded.
Tillage used to be a dirty word, avoided at all costs to build organic matter and sequester carbon.
However, successive wet years have changed attitudes.
Soil that has been tilled with the residue chopped and buried warms up more quickly in spring. As well, drying out the soil is now often the aim. Water has become the enemy.
Long-standing stubble is great for trapping snow, but in recent years that has been bad news for many producers. More moisture can mean delayed seeding and unseeded land.
Just a few years ago, stripper headers on combines had much greater appeal. They provide the ultimate in long-standing stubble. Now, many producers are hesitant to use them.
The old practice of stubble burning is making a comeback.
Wet conditions have caused a great deal of fusarium head blight in cereal crops. Producers in areas with the worst infestations are trying to limit field carryover by torching the crop residue.
Besides, black ground will warm up and dry out faster in spring.
Groups pushing for more irrigation development have had trouble maintaining their momentum. It’s difficult to convince governments to invest in irrigation infrastructure while crop insurance programs pay farmers for land that’s too wet to seed and yields drop because of flooding.
Water drainage is a huge issue that governments don’t know how to address, and it runs contrary to the concept of expanded irrigation.
The 1930s were dry while the 1950s and 1970s were often wet. The 1980s were dry with a huge drought in 1988. There was another big drought in 2002 for many regions. However, in the past decade too much water has been far more problematic and widespread than the shortages.
Is this the new norm or just another cycle? Alas, no one knows for sure. Many experts claim to be certain about man-made climate change, but nobody seems able to accurately predict the weather more than a few days into the future.
Producers are left to assume that too much water will be an on-going problem. They’re investing in grain carts because fields are too soft to support trucks. Tracks are replacing rubber on everything from tractors and combines to seeding equipment.
Crop choice is also affected. Lentils and peas have seen their acreages decline in many regions as producers switch to more water-tolerant crops, including soybeans.
The drought-prone Prairies have become flood-prone.
