The majority of farmers in the Canora\Preeceville\Kamsack\Norquay region had either just started seeding or were about to get underway, said Liam O’Halloran, Prairie Soils agronomy manager, on Thursday.
After a long, drawn-out harvest in 2018, there were a few farmers who still had one or two fields of wheat or canola left to harvest, but expected to get that done in short order, said O’Halloran.
He indicated that soil conditions are quite dry in most areas. A few farmers south of Canora toward Yorkton were fortunate enough to receive some snow recently which quickly melted, but most across the region missed that precipitation completely.
Prior to the start of seeding this spring, some farmers have been on their fields applying anhydrous fertilizer, something they were hoping to accomplish last fall until the abrupt arrival of winter.
O’Halloran said the floater recently acquired by Prairie Soils for dry fertilizer application has been popular with area farmers.
As conditions begin to warm up, he expects those farmers who haven’t yet started seeding to do so within the next week or so.
Soil temperatures in most areas are still only around 5 or 6 C, which is the absolute minimum for germination. Farmers who can wait a few days for those temperatures to get closer to 10 C would be well advised to do so, said O’Halloran. In cooler soil temperatures, the seeds will grow slower, which provides more of an opportunity for attacks by pests.
Canola and wheat are expected to be the crops with the largest acreage once again across the region, as they have for a number of years.
But O’Halloran is expecting to see a noticeable increase in peas this year. He said an increasing number of growers are taking steps to guard against problems with clubroot in canola. One of those steps is to move from growing canola every second year, to once every three years. But he encourages new pea growers to start with a smaller acreage, just to get accustomed to growing the crop.
Most farmers are hoping for temperatures to warm up over the next couple of weeks with an end to below freezing temperatures at night, and some timely rains to improve soil moisture conditions for the upcoming growing season.
