Crop seeding on the prairies playing catchup

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on May 16, 2023.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

Producers in southwest Saskatchewan are looking for more rain, especially near the Alberta boundary, according to that province’s first crop report of the season.

The entire region’s seeding sits at just 13 per cent on May 8, about one-third of the five-year-average, but “producers are not worried about getting all of their acres seeded.”

In the western reaches however, farm and ranch operators are already reporting the benefit of winter moisture is waning, and cropland and pasture is drying out.

In the past week, localized showers in Gull Lake and Shaunavon improved the situation. Across the region, subsoil moisture on cropland is considered 83 per cent adequate. The majority of hay and pasture is considered adequate for moisture, but 23 per cent of acres are short.

Similar to southeast Alberta, pastures have been slow to green after a cooler than average spring, and producers are now putting calves out.

An abbreviated crop report from the Alberta ag ministry stated that on May 9, seeding had progressed swiftly and was now one-third complete in the southern Alberta after a very slow start.

Progress on major crops across the province hit 25 per cent complete, and is most advanced in the Peace Region.

In the Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Strathmore and Foremost region pasture conditions were rated as 55 per cent good and 34 per cent fair, with a similar spread for moisture conditions.

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