Seeding progress has been continuing through this week with the warm, dry weather leading up to the long weekend, with some producers finished and others still working on planting their crops for the year.
According to Sask. Ag and Food’s weekly crop report for the period ending May 16, about 60 per cent of the crops in the southeast region have been planted, with the Weyburn area (crop district 2A) and the Radville-Lake Alma-Assiniboia area (crop district 3ASE) both at 92 per cent completed.
Rainfall halted seeding for a couple of days, bringing varying amounts of moisture to the southeast area. The RM of Tecumseh around Stoughton received about 10 millimetres of rain, the RM of Brokenshell recorded 32 mm, Wellington received 24.5 mm, Francis had a range from 12.5 to 19 mm, Laurier ranged from 19 to 25.4 mm, and The Gap had 24 mm of rain.
For producer Dale Paslawski, who farms north of Weyburn near Cedoux, he received about a half-inch of rain, which was very much-needed for the crops he had seeded.
“We’re three-quarters of the way through our seeding,” he said, noting a number of neighbours are finished their seeding for this season.
Some of his organic-growing neighbours just got started with their seeding over the long weekend.
“We’re quite a ways ahead of seeding from previous years. Usually we’re only about half-done by this time,” said Paslawski.
One difference he’s found is that this year they don’t have take detours around low spots or wet spots in the fields, which in a normal spring would see tractors get bogged down in the muck.
Farmers have been able to reclaim a lot of land this year from how dry it was over winter and spring, as a lot of low-lying spots that were avoided for the last 10 to 15 years are now not a problem anymore.
“This way we’re more efficient, instead of having to go around sloughs or getting stuck like in past years. It’s a really interesting year to be farming,” said Paslawski.
As some of his early-planted crops, such as durum, have begun emerging, he estimates in about a week to 10 days he’ll need to start doing in-crop spraying. His fields are mostly mustard and durum, but he notes quite a few producers in the area are seeding peas and lentils this year, with lentils in particular filling a lot of acres.
“My durum is looking good. That half-inch or so that we got last week was very timely, because some of that land was bone dry when I seeded it,” said Paslawski, and noted the moisture level will be a big concern for producers in the coming weeks.
According to Sask. Agriculture, topsoil moisture conditions were greatly improved by the rainfall, but some parts of the area still needs rain to help crops germinate and emerge. Topsoil moisture is rated as six per cent surplus, 81 per cent adequate, 12 per cent short and one per cent very short in the southeast area.
For hay land and pastures, moisture is rated as three per cent surplus, 70 per cent adequate, 26 per cent short and one per cent very short. Most producers are expected to wrap up seeding in the next week or so.
