Weekly Provincial Summary

Heavy rains the previous week again slowed seeding efforts, leaving fields damp to saturated, and farmers rapidly adjusting plans to find drier fields, switching intended planting order, or harrow/tilling ahead of planting to condition and dry soil where possible.

Provincial seeding progress sits at about 10% completion, behind the 5-year average of 77% for Week 20. 

Estimates are that most farms and pastures remain about 3 to 4 weeks behind normal in terms of seeding progress and forage growth.

Farmers are extremely concerned about seeding delays, leading some farmers to switch a small amount of planned corn or soybean acres into canola and spring wheat, while planned field pea acres have dropped in some parts of the Southwest in favour of more canola.

Weather conditions were cloudy and cool much of the previous week, leading to shifting acreage plans, or order-of-operations changes. Farmers with a more flexible mind-set or the ability to modify equipment are the quickest to respond to changing situations.

A few warm, dry days ahead will see a surge in planted acres ahead of Saturday’s forecasted rain.

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