Seeding is close to complete is Manitoba, but crops were put to the test early in the growing season
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Crops in Manitoba battled against the elements at the start of the growing season.
The province faced high winds at the end of May, said Anastasia Kubinec. She’s the manager of crop and industry development with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development.
The excessive wind events “happened when the field soil was fairly dry. So, we had a lot of sandblasting activity on the emerging crops,” she told Farms.com.
While most crops can withstand this activity, canola doesn’t do well in this situation. Canola has a small leaf surface and the growing point is just above the ground, said Kubinec.
The wind “was either shearing off the plants right at the soil surface, or the soil was piling up on the plant. And then the plant had to re-emerge through that soil,” said Kubinec.
Flea beetles and a frost event also affected the canola’s emergence.
“Farmers went out and actually did a lot of plants counts to try and assess (their stand). In some instances, some reseeding occurred,” said Kubinec.
“The reseeding that occurred was patches in the field. It wasn't necessarily an entire field, which was good. But (the situation) makes it difficult for the farmer to get in there and do some reseeding without damaging … the rest of the crop that's already emerged.”
Even with the tough start in some areas of the province, producers are almost finished seeding. Farmers had planted over 90 per cent of the 2020 crop as of the June 9 report.
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