Despite the somewhat unusual spring and early summer weather, in general, the soil in southeast Saskatchewan still has a descent amount of moisture. Except for a few pockets, most areas received some rain over the past month.
Sherri Roberts, a crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, gave the Lifestyles an update on the current situation.
“It’s really variable. We had rains on Thursday in some areas, some on Friday and some on Saturday,” said Roberts.
The Glenavon area received about an inch of rain at the end of last week, while other areas, like Francis, hardly had any. So far, the most people had was about two inches of rain.
As of the middle of June, the area between Estevan and Oxbow was in need of surface moisture, but about three inches down into the dirt the situation was much better.
In general, there is no risk of widespread drought in southeast Saskatchewan as of now.
“There are certain pockets in the southeast that are real, real dry, but talking to a lot of farmers out there, when you start digging down looking, there is still decent subsoil moisture there,” said Roberts. “But we are not in a d-word here, thank goodness.”
The majority of crops have germinated well. A lot of them were put in earlier this year, but they set in the dirt for a while. Roberts noted that so far she has seen some good pea crops and really nice-looking cereal fields. Some fall rye started to head out over by Oxbow, but it seemed a little bit dry.
Canola was off to a rough start this year, because of colder weather and the flea beetles that are out there, attacking certain fields. But the picture could vary depending on the area.
The pastures were off to a slow start as well. Yet, that was not only due to the lack of rain but mainly because of the cooler weather the southeast experienced in May and the beginning of this month.
June is traditionally Saskatchewan’s wettest time, and it’s only halfway gone, so there is still a good chance of getting more rain in the area. Besides, Roberts noted that quite often the rains may last into the first half of July as well, so it’s definitely too early to panic.
“We still have the other half of the month yet, and even last year we went into the first part of July still getting good, decent moisture. So we just need to keep the hope that the weather patterns keep hitting this part of the southeast,” said Roberts.
The storms that have been going through southeast Saskatchewan are a real hit and miss this year, but Roberts noted that “all we can do is hope that they keep coming and coming through, and sooner or later, hopefully, everybody will get some moisture.”
But if worst comes to worst, earlier in the year the Ministry of Agriculture rolled out their programs to assist the farmers. If somebody is in one of those dry pockets, they should contact one of their program’s specialists to find out if there is some assistance available in their situation.
“Particularly, if they are having issues with their dugouts and water levels in dugouts, and they need some assistance in possibly putting in some new ones or making them deeper,” noted Roberts.
Now they started the new five-year funding cycle and some programs have been expanded. More information can be received from program specialists at the office or over the phone at 306-848-2857.
