West-central seeding lags five-year average in first crop report

By Ian MacKay

Farmers in west-central Saskatchewan had barely started seeding when Agriculture Department staff issued the first provincial crop report of the season.

Area farmers had planted one per cent of their fields, "well below the five-year average" of 11 per cent, according to the report issued on Thursday. It covered the week ending last Monday.

They'd seeded five per cent of their canola and durum fields, three per cent of their spring wheat and two per cent of their lentils and barley.

No rain fell around Rosetown, other than eight millimetres in the Rural Municipality of Milden, leaving topsoil moisture levels in fields at two per cent surplus, 85 per cent adequate, 12 per cent short and one per cent very short. Hay and pasture land was drier, around 75 per cent adequate.

Only 39 per cent of west-central reporters indicated their zones got enough spring runoff to replenish dugouts and sloughs.

Elsewhere, flooding and runoff had kept many farmers off the land, the province-wide report said. Saskatchewan farmers had seeded three per cent of their fields, trailing the five-year average for that point of 12 per cent.

Those in the southwest led at seven per cent done, with those in the southeast at five per cent and west-central at one per cent. The start was "delayed" in the other three regions.

Mostly dry weather during the week "will allow saturated fields to begin to dry up and seeding operations to get underway," the report said.

Department staff also reminded farmers to be careful and watch for overhead power lines as they move equipment.