Manitoba Seeding Stalled by Flooding, Saturated Fields

May 13, 2022

Less than 1% of this year’s Manitoba crop was seeded through the first week of May as farmers faced major wet weather-related delays, according to the first provincial crop report of the season on Tuesday.

Farmers are “extremely concerned” about seeding delays, leading some farmers to switch planned corn or soybean acres into canola and spring wheat, while planned field pea acres may see a decline as well, the report said. Typically, about 21% of the Manitoba crop would be in the ground by now.

Extremely wet and cold April conditions, with several Central region locations receiving over 500% of normal precipitation for the month, prevented soils from draining and drying ahead of planting. As a result, crop planting is delayed by at least two weeks behind ‘normal’ starting dates. Standing water is common in fields across Manitoba, although a few scattered fields were planted in the Brandon to Rivers area last weekend.

Multiple highway closures are ongoing due to flooding, also impacting movement of agricultural commodities and inputs, the report added.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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