(submitted photo/Ministry of Agriculture)

By Alice McFarlane

Crop Report

Recent rain enough for now

Jun 27, 2019 | 3:44 PM

Last week’s rain provided temporary relief from the extremely dry conditions and recharged soil moisture.

Crops Extension Specialist Cory Jacob said the amount of precipitation received in the past week varied across the province with the greatest amount of 114 millimeters reported south of Swift Current near Blumenhof.

“The southern part of the province and even some of the central parts were needing a good drink of water and it definitely came this past week,” Jacob said. “The nice part was it was pretty large province-wide.”

The rainfall came too late for the majority of first-cut hay but it will encourage growth for a later cut.

Jacob said the rain recharged topsoil moisture but subsoil is still dry.

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“When the crops get into the reproductive mode and start flowering and heading out their water use goes a lot higher. We’ll see what the weather is like in July. If it’s hot and dry as we normally would expect, the crop is going to be using a lot of that moisture and the subsoil is really going to be parched and we’re going to be looking for rain again,” Jacob said. “It’s a good reminder that this helps but this doesn`t carry us throughout the season. It carries us for a few weeks maybe a month at the most.”

Jacob said the majority of crops are behind to normal in their growth. The spotty showers have made it difficult for farmers with spraying operations as weeds are growing now and crops are getting late in stage for in-crop herbicide applications.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF