Warm weather has helped some producers to control weeds on unseeded acres in southeast Saskatchewan, however the majority of the area continues to deal with excess moisture and limited field access.
Warm weather has helped some producers to control weeds on unseeded acres in southeast Saskatchewan, however the majority of the area continues to deal with excess moisture and limited field access.
"We were able to go into the fields with our spraying equipment to deal with the weeds," said Marcel van Staveren. Previously he was using aerial spraying to apply chemicals.
Aerial sprayers were flying steady in the southeast so that farmers could apply herbicides to their acres. With fields slowly drying up, farmers are having an easier time accessing them.
"The weeds are very bad," added van Staveren. "The fields that have not been sprayed since last summer have both annual and perennial weeds. The fields that we sprayed last fall are only dealing with annual weeds."
"My fields are very weedy, and I have a lot of dock weeds that have started to head," said Dale Paslawski. That is causing somewhat of a problem with control, but Dale plans to get out his double-discer to deal with the issue on all his unseeded acres.
Crop reporters are expressing concerns about navigating through the wet areas and laying the swath down on the wet ground to begin their haying operations. There are areas of hay fields that are also flooded out.
"We are doing lots of zigs and zags in haying because of the water issues in the field," said Glenn Walkeden, who had 400 acres cut as of Friday. "The hay quality looks 15 per cent better than last year, but we are down in quantity."
"Pasture sizes have dwindled because of all the water laying in them," added Walkeden. Cattle are being rotated through the pastures more often, especially as farmers work to balance their haying operations.
According to the weekly crop report from the Ministry of Agriculture, the southeast region has five per cent of the hay cut and one per cent baled or put into silage. From those numbers, 74 per cent of the hay is rated as good to excellent in quality.
Topsoil moisture conditions on crop land is seven per cent surplus and 43 per cent adequate. Hay and pasture land is rated as 51 per cent surplus and 49 per cent adequate.
"Fields are still wet, and I am still getting stuck during spraying operations," said Paslawski. "The heat is helping, a lot of wet spots on higher ground are starting to disappear."
Flooding is the cause of most crop damage, as crops are under excess moisture stress. Leaf diseases are showing up.
"We lost about 20 per cent of our planted acres because they were drowned by flooding," said van Staveren. This is especially a concern for farmers who only completed a low percentage of their seeding operations. "They have been thinned right out."
"This a totally different year than previous ones, and there is pressure on farmers one way or another," said Walkeden. "The pressure from crop diseases hasn't been an issue yet, but there is concerns that there will be foot rot because of the extreme wet conditions."
Development of the crops are still a little behind the average. The crop insurance deadline to meet and maintain minimum summerfallow coverage requirements is July 11 for green manure crops in the brown and dark brown soil zones, and July 25 for green manure crops in the black and grey soil zones.
"There are a few guys who are talking about seeding winter wheat this fall, if the ground is dry enough," noted Paslawski. For himself, and other producers with dock weeds, they will have to focus all their attention on destroying the weeds.
