The Executive Director of Winter Cereals Canada says the fall seeded cereal crops have entered the period where they are at their greatest risk of winter kill.
The number of acres seeded to winter wheat in Manitoba fell to about 200,000 last fall and held steady in Saskatchewan at about 240,000.
Jake Davidson, the Executive Director of Winter Cereals Canada, reports we’re just getting into the period where fall seeded cereal crops are the most vulnerable to weather conditions.
Starting in March, going through thaw, it depends on the spring we have. If we have a slow thaw and things run off and it’s kind of nice and peaceful we’ll be all night. If we get 10-12 above for a day and the snow melts and then it drops to 15 below and then warms up again and we the heat cool heat cool, we lose our top cover of the snow on the surface, the first inch of the ground warms up in the sun in the day, it’s wet then it freezes at night, the crown of the winter wheat or any of the winter crops, fall rye, triticale, it’s only an inch below the ground and if it’s subject to too much of this freeze thaw freeze thaw freeze thaw, that’s when we get winter kill.
Winter kill to me is misnamed. I think it’s 90 percent spring kill. That’s when we have our lowest winter hardiness. The crop going into the winter is its hardiest in October November and, from that point on, it gets less winter hardy through until March April.
Davidson says in some areas the crops are still well protected by snow cover but in other areas there is very little snow cover to provide insulation from the cold.
He says the crop has got its least cold resistance right now and variations from hot to cold, hot to cold and wet to dry is what’s most likely to cause us trouble so it’s just a matter of waiting to see what happens.
