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With the weather warming and spring coming to the prairies, producers have been going through calving season with plenty of work for them.
Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan Vice-President Chris Procyk says that, from what he's heard, it's been a decent season in the province.
"The producers I talked to, it's been pretty good. You know, we don't have cows ourselves, but relying on second-hand knowledge, I think most guys in my circles of the success numbers, there's a couple of cold weeks there in February that would be kind of quote-unquote normal, but I think generally it was pretty good."
With current beef prices, Procyk says that every calf matters, so ensuring that calving season goes smoothly is top of mind for many.
With fewer cold snaps in the current forecast for the remaining spring, Procyk is hoping we've got a clear run to the summer.
"I think that from my understanding, it's the big temperature swings where you go from plus 10 to -20 that there would be a risk of sickness and stuff like that. But calves that are a few weeks old that are not quite out of the risk spectrum, a little bit think, generally, it would be pretty good conditions here for the next little while."
The summer may not be all roses, depending on how feed production goes through the summer.
"I think it's definitely better than it was probably a couple of years ago. I don't know if we're truly out of the woods yet. We've had good moisture in some spots, but then you go down to like say, Weyburn or further South, where there's not a lot of snow cover, that, I think, there's always the risk of short hay."
Procyk says that while conditions are still a bit touch-and-go for prairie producers, we've come a long way from the droughts that ran across the fields a few years ago.