The cold's holding on, but conditions are good to get some work done ahead of seeding. That's from Curtis Sims of Emeline Farms in MacGregor. Sims explains.

Curtis Sims"It looks like a relatively early start. I think you'll see a fair bit of fertilizing and perhaps putting on something for special crops for soil incorporated chemicals for a longer period ahead of actual seeding. It's pretty cold out there. But it's dry enough that we might be able to scratch around and leave the seed in the bags for a little while."

He notes it's better than previous years.

"I guess I would say it looks reasonably promising compared to the previous two or three years when we were dealing with swamps, and all that frustration. One year was extremely late starting seeding. So, it's a welcome relief to see high conditions where it looks like you can roll along and work quite effectively. This cold spell will slow us down in terms of actual seeding a little bit, but if we can get other work done ahead it makes the whole season a little easier, and less of a push if you can spread things out a little bit."

He adds, 'It's a little but of a strange spring. That early blast of warmth was great. It got rid of the snow and the water ran away and it started to soak in. So, that was real nice. It also looks like the winter wheat is come through nicely I believe. So, that's a good thing. Personally we grow quite a bit of winter wheat. So, for us that's real good. IT's going to spread things out nicely unless we get six inches of rain or something. We always have to add that in the farming business."

Sims notes they have to keep an eye on finances.

"I guess looking ahead financially we always look forward to a good crop and so on. And it looks like a reasonable start. The early hint west of us of dryness perhaps, that hasn't been the problem around here for a while. But we'll see. Prices are just kind of a little mediocre. Costs are up a bit. So, we have to be a little bit careful financially. But other than that we look forward positively to a year that should turn out pretty good by the look of it."