This winter has been far from normal with little snowfall and above average temperatures.
Jake Ayre farms at Minto and is vice president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers. He says it has been a different type of winter, no question.
“It has been a weird winter across the province with lots of areas with little to no snow just before Christmas. Some snow did fall but then into the new year we had the warm weather and this freeze-thaw cycle.”
Ayre says it now appears we’re getting into a more normal winter cycle, but he adds leading up to mid-February, it has been interesting, to say the least.
“Looking at accumulated precipitation maps, it appears many parts of Southern Manitoba went into the winter months with slightly below normal accumulations and that snow cover is going to be paramount for a number of producers,” said Ayre.
He says one of the biggest concerns right now is the fall crops that may be exposed to the conditions and the impact the weather could have on those acres.
“We’ve got some winter wheat on our farm, and you don’t want the crop that was established in the fall to be too exposed to the elements. Obviously, we get the –40 weather and the freeze-thaw cycle we experienced, and we’ve been checking our crops to see if they’re going to have winterkill.”
Grain markets have taken a downward trend, but Jake Ayre says overall producers are optimistic.
“We had a couple years of record high prices so you can’t always have your cake and eat it too.”