Dean Roberts says his crops look good but will need rain soon
Saskatchewan farmers are just about finished with seeding.
Sask. Agriculture’s crop report from May 27 to June 2 indicates seeding is 97 per cent complete across the province.
One farmer who has already finished is Dean Roberts, owner of Oakdale Farms, an 8,000-acre family farm in Coleville, Sask., producing a variety of crops.
“This year is wheat, flax, chickpeas, lentils, and canola,” he told Farms.com.
The 2025 seeding season on the farm went smoothly.
Roberts didn’t run into any serious delays.
“Our seeding season was pretty uneventful,” he said. “But that’s what we want because the sooner we can get the crop in and growing, and get it ahead of the weeds, the better.”
This is different compared to last year when rain delays caused multiple challenges.
Instead of seeding an individual crop completely, Roberts and his team had to pivot whenever conditions allowed.
“With all of the rain we were switching crops just wherever we thought we could get on land that was dry enough,” he said. “We were starting to burn up the calendar so we were running across the farm whenever we thought we could get some acres in.”
This year’s crop is emerged and Roberts likes what he sees.
The wheat is in the 4 or 5-leaf stage and canola is in the 3-leaf stage.
While Mother Nature didn’t bring any hurdles during seeding, Roberts says the crop needs her help now.
Conditions are starting to get a little dry.
“The concern is growing daily,” he said. “The crop isn’t hurting yet but we’re expecting it to start any day now. The countdown is on for when the damage is going to hit.”
The Weather Network’s current forecast for Coleville shows potential rain on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
The next step for Roberts is his in-crop herbicide program.
That includes Solo Ultra Q on lentils and OnDeck with MCPA.
“We’re waiting to see what the weed spectrum is like,” he said. “The worry is if we spray now, we’re probably going to get a second flush of weeds that we won’t control. The weeds that are there are getting larger and crop safety starts to come into play.”
To support his scouting program, Roberts subscribes to some NDVI services.
Despite that, he still likes to walk the field and see conditions with his own eyes.
It’s not that he’s against using technology, but he wants more proof that it’ll be worth the investment.
“The proof is in the pudding, and I want to see it work,” he said. “Most of those scouting things haven’t worked well for our conditions here. I don’t want to be an early adopter of tech but I want to be the fastest follower."