Slow start to spring seeding due to wet weather, old crops still in ground

Farmers across the province have started to make their way onto the fields for seeding, however, last year’s harvest still plagues some, according to the provincial crop report.

“We had high hopes in March, of course, that the weather was quite nice and we would be able to get out into the field (to finish harvesting). But unfortunately, the weeks of cool damp weather have set us back,” said Shannon Friesen, crop management specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture in Moose Jaw.

The first crop report of the year was released Thursday. Farmers in Saskatchewan have one per cent of the crop seeded compared to 15 per cent last year at this time — the five-year average is six per cent. There is also an estimated one million acres of last year’s crop remaining in the fields, with the majority being in the westcentral and northeastern areas of the province.

“Certainly every year we see a little bit (of crop left in the fields). We will have very few fields out there, but this is likely the first year ever that we’ve had this much crop to still come off,” Friesen said.

This year’s seeding has been off to a bumpy start with many fields remaining soggy from a wet fall and rain and snow falling in the past few weeks.

Megz Reynolds from Kyle finally made it onto the fields to start seeding green lentils Thursday morning. Usually she starts seeding the third or fourth week of April. This year, the wet weather held her back.

“We wanted to start on Monday and then we got rain on Sunday and then we were going to start a couple of days ago and we got about three or four rain showers that came through throughout the day,” she said.

Reynolds and her husband, Liam Gauthier, plan to seed lentils, flax, canola and barley this year. However, she isn’t completely sure yet what the prices for this year’s crop will be.