The May long weekend was busy for southeast farmers, as they worked steadily to continue to seed their 2013 crops.
"Conditions are pretty good right now, and the fields are drying up real quickly," said Dale Paslawski. "I am seeing a lot of guys in the field starting to seed. The bigger operations are pushing hard, with some going 24 hours a day, going flat out with their seeding operations."
Paslawski said that the May long weekend was busy for farmers in southeast Saskatchewan. "But there are still some guys on the edge of seeding, who haven't started yet."
"We are seeding away, we started last week," said Brad Eggum, who farms in the Midale area. "We have to be selective to which fields we are seeding, but it is getting better every day."
"The soil temperatures are warm enough to be seeding, and where there is water in the field, you can seed right up to it," added Eggum.
Jeff Gaab started his seeding operations also last week. "If the weather keeps up the way it is has, we should be alright for finishing on time."
"There are still some wet spots in the fields, but we can't wait any longer. We are working around those, and it will improve as we go along," said Gaab.
According to the weekly crop report from the Ministry of Agriculture, the average seeding progress for the southeast is at four per cent. A few RMs are reporting seeding progress at higher levels, these include Radville at 20 per cent and Ceylon at 25 per cent.
A lot of southeast farmers are out seeding pulse crops, according to Paslawski. "I see them out there rolling their fields, so I think there will be a lot more soybeans seeded this year."
"There are a number of guys who have changed their seeding plan because of the late start to the season," said Paslawski. He added that another pulse crop, green peas, is seeing high prices right now which might affect other seeding decisions.
"We have put in five quarters of soybeans into our fields, and we will rotate the other crops later in the season," said Eggum. "We have beautiful conditions to seed our pulse crops right now."
The seeding plans for Jeff Gaab is that he has started on durum, with some barley, then later will be switching over to seeding peas and lentils. "If that goes well, we will go into canola."
Most of the farmers in Gaab's area haven't switched their seeding operations too much yet. "They are going as steady as they can. Everything that we had planned for the season is what we are sticking to right now."
Cropland topsoil moisture is rated as 31 per cent surplus, 68 per cent adequate and one per cent short. Hay land and pasture topsoil moisture is rated as 23 per cent surplus, 72 per cent adequate and five per cent short.
"There are still a few low spots in the field, where they will dip or dive, but even if you got water you can't wait to start seeding," said Paslawski. He said he will be seeding flax first, then switching to wheat.
"We have pretty good soil conditions that are working quite nicely for seeding, we are really happy with the moisture conditions of the fields," said Gaab. "A little bit of rain would help, but we don't want too much."
"We don't want to see any Biblical rain, but a little moisture would definitely be beneficial to the fields," said Eggum.
When Paslawski was interviewed on Friday afternoon, he was doing burn-off spraying of his land to prepare for seeding operations. He noted that the biggest problems from weeds in the field were caused by dandelions and foxtail barley.
Farmers should note that a new Canadian Wheat Alliance was announced by the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan.
The Canadian Wheat Alliance is an initiative that will co-ordinate research and development projects to improve the yield of Canadian wheat by reducing losses under extreme weather conditions such as drought, heat, cold and diseases.
The CWA will invest approximately $97 million over the first five years of this initiative to support research to improve the profitability of the Canadian wheat industry, advance the development of Canada's wheat crops, and help ensure the global competitiveness of Canadian farmers.
It will also study ways to more efficiently use chemical fertilizers to help improve the environmental sustainability of Canadian wheat.
