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Saskatchewan farmers taking chance on winter wheat

Nov 15, 2017 | 1:04 PM

The seeds are planted in northeastern Saskatchewan for what could be a better crop in 2018.

The Western Winter Wheat Innitiative is forecasting more acres of winter wheat to be seeded this year than past years with Carrot River reporting higher activity.

Jason Hood is the terminal operations manager at the Richard Pioneer Office in Carrot River. He said there were a lot of unseeded acres this year due to the spring being too wet.

“There are more guys wanting to try something new, get something seeded because they haven’t had anything seeded for a while,” he said.

Agrologist Lyse Boisvert with the Western Winter Wheat Initiative said seeding winter wheat provides many benefits including helping with water infiltration and erosion.

“You know in the springtime if those acres are wet, and winter wheat is already established, it can use up that moisture and use up that water, and get going first thing in the spring so guys don’t have to put any machinery on those fields,” she said.

According to Boisvert, an average of 265,000 acres was seeded in the northern region with winter wheat the past few years.

She said she hopes to see more acreage seeded this year due to some new varieties of winter wheat on the market. One of the higher yielding and more popular new varieties is wildfire.

“The major advantage for the producer is they can jump start on their harvest usually at the end of July or early August,” Boisvert said.

Producers who are interested in growing winter wheat, can get more information at growwinterwheat.ca

 

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell