(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Crop Report

Waiting for the million dollar rain

Jun 6, 2019 | 2:29 PM

While seeding is wrapped up, many producers are keeping an eye on the sky.

Ninety-nine per cent of the crop is in the ground but topsoil moisture conditions continue to deteriorate due to strong winds and the lack of rain. Cropland topsoil moisture is rated as 22 per cent adequate, 47 per cent short and 31 per cent very short.

It’s very dry and Crops Extension Specialist Cory Jacob said the circle gets bigger every week.

“The driest conditions are kind of centered in central Saskatchewan I would say. That moves over to the west central, east central, southwest and southeast and it’s growing a bit more every week,” Jacob said. “It’s starting to get closer into the northwest and northeast parts of the province where they’re starting to get short on moisture and starting to report more on it.”

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The dry conditions are making it more appetizing for flea beetles, which can become more active in these conditions.

“They’ve been feeding quite heavily on the canola crops. They have been causing a fair bit of damage and there has been some reseeding and insecticide application due to that,” Jacob said. “There have been reports of cutworms especially in the northeast and east central part of the province on the cereals and oilseeds and a little bit on the pulse crops as well. I’m not sure if there has been spraying for them but they definitely are active and out there.”

Jacob said producers are reporting patchy emergence and germination but he hasn’t heard of a lot of reseeding.

“The crop that is sitting there still hasn’t germinated and they are giving it more time. Producers might be making those decisions here in the next few weeks and maybe they will seed to something else. That could be happening but haven’t heard anything reported yet along those lines,” Jacob said.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF