Warm weather in May allows farmers to catch up in the fields

The warmest May thus far since 1961 helped local and all Alberta farmers gain ground in the current planting season, the Alberta Crop report stated on May 18.

The planting season is fully underway across the province, it reports, with favourable conditions and good progress in all regions.

Seeding is furthest advanced in the south, where 53.8 per cent of all crops are in the ground, compared to 37.7 per cent for all of Alberta.

For Region One, comprising Medicine Hat, Foremost, Lethbridge and Strathmore areas, low-lying areas may still have standing water, though more precipitation is needed for even germination and to spur pasture growth. Eight per cent of crops have emerged.

For individual crops, sugar beet acres are nearly 90 per cent seeded, followed by potatoes (75 per cent) and dry peas (68 per cent) with spring wheat, durum, barley, canola and corn all sitting about halfway complete.

Pasture and tame hay fields are considered 64 per cent good condition, but will require more moisture, the Alberta report concludes.

Planting in southwest Saskatchewan has now caught up to the five-year average, showing 45 per cent progress, according to that province’s crop report to May 18.

Across the region new crops of wheat and durum showed one-third complete, canola and lentils at two-thirds complete and about half the chickpeas acres complete.

The report also states Gull Lake received the most rainfall of anywhere in the province over the past week with 18 mm.

Reports state that ground moisture is adequate for seeding, but more precipitation will be required in the following weeks to help crops get established.