Manitoba Agriculture reports, with 97 percent of spring planting now complete, crops are advancing quickly and now more rain is needed.
Dennis Lange, a pulse and soybean specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and editor of the provincial Crop Report, says it was great to see some areas get some rainfall over the past week but amounts were sporadic across the province.
Overall, every region has gotten a little bit of moisture and some areas further north in the northwest around that Swan River area there was actually some storms that moved through in the last week that dropped some significant rainfall there. But overall, we still could use a general rain across the province.
The crops are looking OK. The cereals are moving along nicely right now. I think maybe part of the difference this year is that the growing conditions have been quite good. We’ve had some warm days and the evenings have been warm as well so the crop is really advancing quickly. The fall rye is all headed already and winter wheat is not that far behind anymore.
We’re looking at growing degree days that are 120 percent of normal so that is good to see and things are moving along nicely. Compared to past years we are still below our normal precipitation for this time period here yet. No real significant rainfall, or general rainfall is what we’re seeing but at least the next couple of days temperatures are cooling off a little bit, from what I’ve seen in the local forecast.
The last few days we’ve had some pretty hot temperatures and growers have been cautious about spraying because of the hotter temperatures.
~ Dennis Lange, Manitoba Agriculture
Lange says, considering seeding started later this year than last, things have caught up and the crops are off to a pretty good start. He notes 97 percent complete is actually slightly ahead of the five-year average.
