Wet grounds slowing seeding in Saskatchewan: Crop report

As of Thursday, Saskatchewan producers officially have 14 per cent of crops in the ground.

That is still behind the five-year average for seeding in the province of 23 per cent, but it isn’t anything to sound alarm bells over, experts say.

“It’s no cause of concern,” said Mathew Struthers, a crops extensions specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture. “We are behind average, but we are getting the moisture we weren’t getting last year.”

The southwest region of the province currently has 34 per cent of its crop seeded, followed by 20 per cent in the west-central, seven per cent in the southeast, five per cent in the northwest, three per cent in the east-central and one per cent in the northeast.

However, many fields in the eastern half of the province are still too wet to allow producers to seed, and many areas of the province are still a week away from seeding.

“What we are seeing right now isn’t untypical of regular season. If it snows on June 1, then we would have a real problem, but I don’t see that happening,” said Struthers.

Livestock producers have reported recent rains have helped fill their dugouts and they feel confident water quality shouldn’t be an issue for the time being. However, producers in the southwest and west-central regions have concerns about water levels and are making plans to haul water if conditions do not improve.

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“I know water availability was an issue last year, but also water quality was quite poor so it’s good to see those numbers coming up,” said Struthers.

“But there are many parts of the regions who aren’t getting dugout refill and that re-charge, so those areas will need some rainfall throughout the summer to refill those dugouts and make that water quality improve,” said Struthers.