Some producers in the province are assessing canola for injury after last weekend's frost, but damage this year is nothing compared to last year's late frost, according to one agronomy specialist.
The Canola Council of Canada's (CCC) Angela Brackenreed says this year, it was fortunate that many canola crops weren't emerged or hadn't been planted yet, so the frost wasn't a concern.
Brackenreed notes the CCC recommends producers wait a few days after a frost event to assess the damage, and at this point, she thinks producers should be able to get a good understanding of frost damage.
"There's been limited reseeding happening in this case," she says. "The temperature leading up to the frost I think helped us a little bit. We had a gradual cooling, and I think it helped acclimatize those little cotyledons to that cold."
From Brackenreed's observations, she says it seems frost damage worsens as you go farther south in the province, likely not due to changes in temperature, but rather because there were more emerged crops in southern parts of Manitoba.
At this point, for farmers needing to reseed, Brackenreed says soil moisture conditions have become a concern in some areas.
"I've been talking to some farmers that are saying they have to go down 2 1/2 to three inches to hit moisture, and obviously that is not at all recommended for seeding canola," she says, "so they're kind of deciding, you know, is it better to leave a really, really thin stand, or seed into dust and then just have to hope for rain?"
Source : Steinbachonline