Seeding nearly complete on Saskatchewan farms

Jun 07, 2024

Seeding in Saskatchewan is more than three-quarters complete, but wet weather this spring has left producers well behind the five-year average.

According to the crop report from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, which covered the week ending on Monday, 77 per cent of the 2024 crop is in the ground. That’s behind the five-year average of 91 per cent, but the report indicated that many producers expect to finish their seeding operations this week if the weather co-operates.

Seeding is furthest along in the southeast, where 84 per cent of the crop is in the ground. The northeast region is furthest behind, with seeding just 68 per cent complete.

Scattered showers over the past week improved topsoil conditions around the province, with moisture levels showing improvements over previous years when farmers were stricken by drought in many areas. The Sonningdale area saw 45 millimetres of rain over the week covered by the report, while 36 mm fell around the Battlefords and Raddison.

Topsoil moisture levels in cropland were rated as three per cent surplus, 89 per cent adequate and eight per cent short. In hayland, moisture levels were rate as two per cent surplus, 85 per cent adequate and 13 per cent short. In pastures, moisture was rated as two per cent surplus, 83 per cent adequate, 13 per cent short and two per cent very short.

“Producers continue to report good crop emergence across the province,” the report read. “Of the crops that have emerged, the majority are reported in excellent to good condition.”

Damage to crops over the past week was largely minor, the crop report stated, with some farmers reporting issues with light frost or excessive water. Insect issues were also reported in some areas.

“Flea beetle and cutworm activity has been noted, with some producers taking control measures,” the report noted. “Some regions have observed grasshoppers hatching but no current reports of crop damage.”

In addition to wrapping up seeding operations, producers in Saskatchewan are also busy moving their cattle to pasture, spraying, picking rocks and land rolling.

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Video: Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

A new peer reviewed study looks at the generally unrecognized risk of heat waves surpassing the threshold for enzyme damage in wheat.

Most studies that look at crop failure in the main food growing regions (breadbaskets of the planet) look at temperatures and droughts in the historical records to assess present day risk. Since the climate system has changed, these historical based risk analysis studies underestimate the present-day risks.

What this new research study does is generate an ensemble of plausible scenarios for the present climate in terms of temperatures and precipitation, and looks at how many of these plausible scenarios exceed the enzyme-breaking temperature of 32.8 C for wheat, and exceed the high stress yield reducing temperature of 27.8 C for wheat. Also, the study considers the possibility of a compounded failure with heat waves in both regions simultaneously, this greatly reducing global wheat supply and causing severe shortages.

Results show that the likelihood (risk) of wheat crop failure with a one-in-hundred likelihood in 1981 has in today’s climate become increased by 16x in the USA winter wheat crop (to one-in-six) and by 6x in northeast China (to one-in-sixteen).

The risks determined in this new paper are much greater than that obtained in previous work that determines risk by analyzing historical climate patterns.

Clearly, since the climate system is rapidly changing, we cannot assume stationarity and calculate risk probabilities like we did traditionally before.

We are essentially on a new planet, with a new climate regime, and have to understand that everything is different now.