Manitoba Agriculture reports, with 97 percent of crops planted, spring seeding is now virtually complete but abundant rain and cooler temperatures are hampering crop development. So far this year all regions of Manitoba have received over 100 percent of normal rainfall with some regions reporting more than 150 percent of normal rain.
Anne Kirk, a cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says we did have more rainfall in Manitoba, over the past week ranging from a high of 55 millimeters accompanied by strong winds and hail which damaged crops in those regions.
These cooler temperatures have made growth of some of the warmer season crops slower than we would typically expect. Also, we’re seeing a wide range of seeding dates so crops range anywhere from just coming up out of the ground, for the oilseeds we’ve seen some canola bolting. For cereals we’re seeing some of the early seeded cereals in the boot stage and also some just coming up out of the ground. We are seeing a wide range of crop development and, in some of these wetter areas we are seeing some drowned out areas in the fields, water laying in the fields and some crops are struggling with that excess moisture.
With the hail and extreme wind that we experienced over the past week, there would be some crop damage expected in those areas and that’s one of those things that farmers would be keeping an eye on to see how regrowth is coming and if reseeding is necessary.
Oilseeds, like for flea beetles, canola would be ranging from cotyledon stage to bolting or even flowering in some of the more advanced fields so we are still seeing some flea beetle activity and insecticide application for those flea beetles. It kind of depends on the area of the province though. We did see more spraying in certain areas of the province than others and in the northwest region we’ve had some reports of fields being reseeded due to flea beetle damage so it depends on the region. In terms of other crop types, we are seeing some cutworms radically affecting crops like canola and sunflowers, in the central region sometimes meeting that threshold for spraying and diamondback moths and grasshoppers are being monitored as well.
~ Anne Kirk, Manitoba Agriculture
Kirk says growers are hoping for warmer temperatures to help increase development of both crops and hay and pasture fields.
