By Brent Bosker

Plenty of unseeded acres, despite a good week of weather

May 20, 2011 | 6:31 AM

The seeding machines were out in full force this week in Saskatchewan. A week of warm and dry weather allowed farmers to gather some momentum going into the long weekend.

According the latest crop report from Saskatchewan Agriculture, 23 per cent of the 2011 crop is now in the ground with northwest areas the furthest along at 41 per cent.

Normally seeding across the province is almost half done by this time of year.

“Farmers have been certainly appreciating and have taken advantage of the warmer dry weather. We’ve seen province wide, a significant improvement from the five per cent of the crop seeded last week,” said Grant McLean, with the Ministry of Agriculture.

The northeast, which includes Prince Albert, is 14 per cent done. It is a big leap forward from the previous week of only one per cent.

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The good progress has certainly lifted the spirits of farmers, said McLean who would like to see the weather trend continue.

“Another good week would certainly go a long way to getting a significant portion of the crop planted.”

While the progress has been encouraging, McLean said farmers are still faced with challenges.

“Well in most cases farmers are still getting stuck and fields are still quite soft, but certainly the warm windy weather has helped dry out the soil.

The poor shape of rural roads has also been an issue this spring with moving equipment, said McLean.

bbosker@panow.com