Southeast Saskatchewan is getting ready for the seeding season, as summer is fast approaching. The area caught the last little bit of winter earlier this week, with areas around Carlyle, Oxbow, Moosomin, and Kipling getting hit with a mixture of heavy snow and rain. At this time of year, farmers are hoping to see a bit more moisture, though too much at the wrong time could cost them valuable days during the seeding season.
We caught up with Agrologist Edgar Hammermeister to talk about all the moisture that came down recently and what that means for the southeast.
"It was a very significant snowfall, a little bit more of a gradient as you go north and east toward Manitoba. I've had reports back to me about 12 to 18 inches of snow accumulated close to the Manitoba border and north of Moose Mountain Park. And it was a heavy snow, so a lot of moisture in that."
In the lead-up to the seeding season, the southeast had previously reported some drier conditions. The moisture that came down is now likely to change a few outlooks. Cattle producers will be a bit more concerned as the moisture won't be enough to fill up dugouts heading into the summer months, Hammermeister noted.
Ahead of the snow, a few areas were still seeing some snow in the fields, with farmers wanting to get that melted as quickly as possible. Hammermeister says that although the snow will probably melt quickly with the current warmth, seeding may be delayed.
"There was some seeding happening already here, even for quite a number of days before Easter. [For] some farmers, the field conditions were good to go, the equipment was good to go, and some of the earliest seeding that we've done. But now this moisture will keep us out of the fields for a number of days."
Hammermeister farms around the Alameda area and expects to be back in the field by Saturday. Areas further west may get back in the fields quicker.
The season may get interrupted again by some precipitation forecasted for the end of the weekend, with Hammermeister saying they're at the stage where dry weather wouldn't be all bad.
"From a farmer's perspective, we'd like to get at seeding here if we could, but we know that we don't like to turn down moisture when it's coming. If we could book it to arrive and know it's coming, then we'd be happy to have it postponed for a little while. We just don't have that much soil moisture in place to carry the crop, so there's nothing we can do about it really anyway. If we had preferences, I think everybody is jumping at the bit to get at it in the field."
With farmers hoping to get their work done quickly this spring, Hammermeister reminds people to watch out for farm equipment on the roads and to drive carefully around them.