Rains help but large portions of local crops still playing catchup
By Medicine Hat News on July 6, 2019.
Significant rainfall has alleviated some concern about the viability of crops this summer in southeast Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan, new crop reports from both provinces state. However, a large portion of crops remain in poor to good condition and at or behind the normal growth stage. Southern Alberta received heavy but relatively isolated showers in the reporting period that ended on July 2, but “moisture is still needed to support the area’s overall crop health,” according to the Alberta crop report. For the most part, conditions improved after a dry June. In Region One, covering Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Foremost and Strathmore, pasture growth improved a little though a first cut of hay is well underway, and considered generally fair to good. Subsurface moisture on cropland is reported as three-quarters “fair” to “good.” Only about two thirds of most major crops are considered in good to excellent condition, well below the 10-year average rating, with the current figure for durum and winter wheat sitting below half. In southwest Saskatchewan, soil moisture across the region is now rated at 86 per cent adequate – the same amount of area rated as short to very short in late June. In terms of crop progression, two thirds of fall cereals and pulse crops are considered at normal stages, compared to half of spring cereals and oilseed plantings. Amounts of rain in the area closest to Alberta ranged from 19 millimetres (0.8 inches) in Leader to 81 mm in Webb. 10-9
