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Even with the best case weather scenario for the remainder of the growing season, Prairie grain production is going to be below normal. Yesterday, Bruce Burnett, the director of weather and market analysis for the Canadian Wheat Board provided an overview of the conditions so far this year. Wet with delayed seeding in much of Manitoba. Dry in Western Saskatchewan and much of Alberta. Damaging frosts in many locations. Delayed crop development everywhere. Below normal temperatures have been with us for five or six months now. In the entire Prairie region, May was cooler than normal. Growing Degree Days this spring are around half of normal at most Prairie locations. At Swift Current, Growing Degree Days are 62 per cent of normal, but they’re only 46 per cent of normal at Weyburn and 45 per cent of normal at North Battleford. Little wonder the crop is so far behind. Burnett also made an interesting observation about the dry regions. Unless rain comes right away a lot of crops are going to fail. If rain comes in the weeks ahead, a significant acreage may be seeded to green feed because there’s going to be a big demand for feed from the cattle industry. I’m Kevin Hursh.
Kevin Hursh, PAg, CAC