An early look at seeding preparations in Saskatchewan

Depending on the region, farmers are still waiting or just starting to work in the field. Tyce Masich, a Crops Extension Specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, heard some producers in the most southwestern parts of the province, close to the U.S. border, began to seed a few acres of durum.

“That’s only been a few acres and not too widespread.” Masich added.

Kevin Hursh, the Chief Agricultural Editor of SaskAgToday.com, farms in the Cabri area, northwest of Swift Current. Hursh confirmed some producers in his area have planted some acres, including himself.

“We’ve tried to gear up and just have a little bit of seeding done, just got nicely started. I got a few acres sprayed, got a few acres seeded, and it turned wet – a fair bit of rain,” Hursh said. “I talked to one neighbour that started, others were contemplating and getting close, waiting for things to warm up and dry off just a little bit more, but the forecast ahead, as soon as this dries up, I think in this area they’ll be a lot of people starting up.”

Jake Leguee, who is the Chairperson of SaskWheat and farms in the Fillmore area in the southeast, thought they would start seeding this week, but recent precipitation changed those plans.

“With the snow that we got over the last couple of days obviously that sets things back, in addition to the rain a week ago, so we got lots of moisture now, we got I’d say better part of eight inches of very wet snow,” Leguee said. “Too early to be concerned about seeding late at this point, so we’ll be just happy that we’re starting off in good shape when it comes to moisture.”

Leguee says the moisture now is good, but how well the crops do will depend on how warm July is and subsequent rainfall.

Brett Halstead, the former Chairperson of SaskWheat, farms northwest of Nokomis. He says he’s about seven to ten days away from starting as they’ve got more than enough moisture.

“Fields are plenty wet and got a little work on some equipment to do, so that’ll take up most of that time and other things we need to do – pick up some seed and so on.” Halstead said.

Regarding topsoil moisture conditions, Masich says it is mixed depending on the area – lots of areas are reporting “pretty good topsoil moisture” and some areas “that could use some more moisture and soils are drying out.”

Decisions of what to plant for the next season are usually done following harvest or in the winter time. Many farmers plant certain crops year-after-year such as wheat and canola and add a specialty crop such as canary seed or oats to diversify their rotation. Seeding intentions differ based on several factors such as soil zone/geography, climate, and market value.

Hursh plans on seeding maple peas, large green lentils, and silage barley this year. He’s also giving non-GMO canola a try this year.

“I’m actually not usually a canola grower…and decided I was going to start with it and get it in the ground and try to get it off to a start and try to beat some of the July heat that’s often very hard on that crop.” he said.

Leguee plans to seed durum wheat, spring wheat, canola, large green lentils, and flax, adding he planted winter wheat for the first time last fall, so he will evaluate how it turned out within the next two weeks.

“We haven’t really modified our seeding plans much at all, just trying to stick with our tried and true rotation. There’s all kinds of things going on in the world these days, so could be another news story tomorrow that complicates things, so not much point in chasing that, so we’ll grow what we know how to grow and do it as best we can.” Leguee said.

Halstead intends to seed wheat, canola, and barley this year.

Overall, all three men share optimism going into spring seeding, though there is some concern about various issues and how that will impact their decisions on the farm, from market volatility to trade wars with the U.S. and China.