Crop producers in the area are completing seeding with cool, wet conditions. Now they'll need warmth and sunshine to bring things along. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Trevor Redden

Soggy Spring

Rain-soaked seeding season nears completion

Jun 3, 2020 | 11:52 AM

A cool, wet spring has slowed seeding in the region at times, but many area farmers are now finishing up this week.

Kerry Peterson, a producer from the Shellbrook area, put the last of his crop into the ground on Monday evening. His area was hit with a couple heavy rains in recent weeks, both bringing in over an inch and a half of precipitation, but it didn’t slow progress as much as he expected.

“The frost was still in the ground, and that took it out. [The water] all just disappeared nicely,” Peterson explained.

Water drainage was sufficient that there were no major potholes or sloughs to seed around, keeping his acreage on par with last year.

Peterson said he expects most of the farmers in the region will wrap up seeding this week, and now he’s hoping for sunshine and warmth to bring the crops along as moisture is plentiful. He also noted the wind is a small concern as even with zero-till seeding, the topsoil still drifts to a certain degree and can cause damage on new growth.

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Ken Blocka, who farms near MacDowall, also finished his seeding in recent days, but he’s been kept busy trying to control flea beetles in his canola.

He said the wind has made spraying the flea beetles challenging, but he’s stayed at the ready to get out when conditions are right.

“If they’re eating the plants when they’re still small, it doesn’t take them very long to kill off the plants and you can end up with nothing or have to re-seed again if you let them go,” Blocka said.

Other than the pesky insects, Blocka said it’s been a good start to the year with enough rain to get his crops growing, and a limited amount of damage from sitting water.

“Some fields were surprising, where you could seed where you couldn’t [due to standing water] last year. Other places were different where you could normally seed it and you couldn’t,” Blocka said.

“It was weird, I think it was just the frost was slow coming out of the ground, the puddles were staying, and so we made a decision to just go around them.”

Like Peterson, Blocka thinks most farmers in the area should be nearing completion in the coming days.

The short-term forecast shows below average temperatures and more precipitation through the weekend.

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trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden