One for the record books

I’ve always admired the old timers who can tell you weather and farming stories from bygone decades. It amazes me how many folks can tell you the year of the big flood or the major drought or the big frost. Well, the spring of 2010 is one for the record books. Precipitation maps from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada show more than two-thirds of the Saskatchewan grainbelt had record high precipitation in April and May. Six inches of rain is quite common, with many areas over eight inches. Areas that aren’t record wet are rated as either extremely high or very high.

With record breaking moisture, there could be record hay production this year. Watch out for unprecedented mosquito infestations. There’s great habitat for ducks. There could be a lot of record crop yields. However, there could also be a record acreage go unseeded. We’re also in danger of setting unfortunate records for grain quality problems due to frost and disease. Odds are that harvest will be late and there will be a huge amount of crop drying.

It’s quite common from some region of the province to have a wet spring. It’s unprecedented to have so much moisture over the entire province. Whatever happens, 2010 will be a year to tell stories about for decades to come. I’m Kevin Hursh.