The executive director of Winter Cereals Canada says the recent extremely wet weather is taking a toll on fall seeded cereal crops.
Heavy rainfall this past weekend in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan that resulted in road closures and local states of emergency has also impacted crops.
Jake Davidson, the executive director of Winter Cereals Canada, reports a lot of the crop is looking a little yellow.
My end of the world here is pretty wet.
I think the crop that got through the winter, if it can make it through the water, it’ll be alright.
Other areas of the country though, like in areas south of Winnipeg, they did lose a lot of winter wheat.
We haven’t had a really good report on what those losses were over the winter.
Generally speaking, you look at the water sitting on the ground in western Manitoba and in eastern Saskatchewan, I don’t think we’re in any worse condition than any other crop.
We’re all seeing yellowing, we’re seeing great huge puddles in the middle of the field and they keep promising, every time I hear an Environment Canada forecaster, they keep saying it’s going to get hot and it’s going to get dry.
I think if we get the hot and the dry things will be as good for us as they will be for any other crop.
One place where winter wheat may be the crop of choice this year is, come closer to fall, come seeding time, there’s going to be a lot of ground out there that isn’t seeded right now and we are an alternative for fall seeding to get that land with some crop in it.
Winter wheat sucks up a lot of moisture and will help to dry down the land a little bit and it means that even if it is a little damp they don’t have to go out and drive over right away it next spring.
Davidson says at this point, especially in the wet areas, it’s a matter of sitting back, allowing things to dry down and then assessing any crop damage.
