Soil moisture – enough to seed into?

Farmers will soon be seeding this year’s crops, in spite of the snow that’s now on the ground and they’ll be hoping for good soil moisture to get crops off to a good start.

Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development says soil moisture in southern Alberta was pretty good going into winter last year. Snow that fell before the ground froze put 40 to 60 millimetres of moisture in the ground.

“We went in probably above average and right now we’re still above average but only slightly above average with the over-wintered precipitation which really hasn’t made a whole lot of difference,” said Joe Michielsen

Having a lot of snow on the ground doesn’t mean a lot of moisture will come from it. The ground has to thaw first. He said snow and rain later in the spring provide the most soil moisture.

Michielsen said, “We hope for normal precipitation to get the entire root zone filled so that we have some moisture in the soil to carry us through the dry periods of July and August and April through June, and with June being our wettest month,we’ve got lots of time for that to happen.”

Michelson has been tracking soil moisture for 31 years. He travelled to fields around the province for many of those years. Now, he’s using 161 weather Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development has established to get information in real time, anytime by satellite and modem.

“We monitor things like precipitation, year round precipitation, temperature, humidity, some of the stations have solar radiation,” he said. “We measure wind in both speed and direction and from that we can get everything right down to evaporation and that sort of thing. It works very well.”
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The maps and information are on Alberta Agriculture’s website, for anyone to use.

Soil was dry before snow fell last fall. Michielsen said that last year’s record crop used what moisture there was to grow. Looking towards spring seeding, “I’d say in general for southern Alberta there’s no need for concern right now as long as we do get the normal precipitation for the next three months.”