Seeding advancing across the province

Producers across Saskatchewan were able to get out into the fields and bring provincial crop seeding levels to 11 per cent this week, according to the provincial crop report.

Last week, seeding had just started, with only one per cent of the crop in the ground. The five-year provincial average for this time of year is 16 per cent.

Seeding is most advanced in the southeast part of the province, where producers have 30 per cent of the crop in the ground. In the southwest, 18 per cent is seeded. Three per cent is seeded in the west-central area and two per cent in the northwestern and east-central regions, with one per cent seeded in the northeast.

Recent warm weather allowed producers to get out into the fields to complete some seeding, herbicide application and harvesting of last year’s crop. Last week, Shannon Friesen, a crop management specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture in Moose Jaw, said an estimated one million acres of the 2016 crop was still left out in the fields.

However, significant rainfall earlier in the week delayed field work. The Outlook area received the most, with 40 millimetres of rain. Fields and roads across much of the province remain wet and are unable to support equipment. Warm and dry weather will be needed to help fields dry before work can continue.

Provincially, cropland topsoil moisture is rated as 26 per cent surplus, 71 per cent adequate and three per cent short. Hay land and pasture topsoil moisture is rated as 14 per cent surplus, 80 per cent adequate and six per cent short.