By Geoff Smith

Northwest crops still drier than rest of the province

Jul 21, 2016 | 5:00 PM

More rain in the past week has slowed haying progress, but crops are mostly at their normal stage of development.

Daphne Cruise, regional crops specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture, said hay producers in the northwest were able to take advantage of a relative dry spell, while south of the Battlefords, west-central areas were drenched again.

“There were a few areas, North Battleford in particular, and more toward Biggar that received a heavier dump,” Cruise said. “But most of it stayed in the northeast southeast, central, and southwest parts of the province, and in some cases dropping over three inches and compounding from last week’s event.”

According to the crop report for the week ending July 18, Biggar recorded 56 mm of rain and Landis 36 mm. The ministry expects some crop losses in the region due to excess moisture, a condition reported in 23 per cent of the cropland and 14 per cent of the hay and pasture land. Producers are holding off on cutting more hay until they can bale what’s already been cut, and most of that progress is being squeezed in between storms.

Hail damage is also evident in the west-central district, and moisture and root rot are leading to yellowing in some pulse crops. Roughly three-quarters of the cereals, oilseeds and pulses are at the normal stage of development for this time of year with most of the remaining quarter ahead of schedule.

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The northwest was drier than other parts of the province in the past week, allowing hay producers to make significant progress. Nearly 50 mm of rain was reported in the Battlefords area, with between 12 and 17 mm recorded near St. Walburg and Hafford.

“They were able to make some pretty good haying progress over the rest of the province,” Cruise said. “That being said, humidity is still quite high and some of these rain showers that are coming through are slowing haying operations for this time of year, so hopefully some of this weather breaks and we’re able to get the hay crop up and in decent shape.”

Eight per cent of the cropland in the northwest and nine per cent of the hay and pasture land has too little topsoil moisture, but crops are responding to the rain that has fallen. Wind and grasshopper damage was reported, with crop development mostly at or ahead its normal progress for this time of year.

Geoff Smith is battlefordsNOW’s News Director, business and agriculture reporter. He can be reached at gsmith@jpbg.ca or tweet him @smithco.

by Geoff Smith

Northwest crops still drier than rest of the province

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