Farmscape for October 30, 2017

A Cropping Management Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture says much of the province will need substantial amounts of moisture this fall to improve soil conditions to allow farmers to get a good start next spring.
Saskatchewan Agriculture's final crop report of the season, released last week, indicates the 2017 provincial harvest is now virtually complete.
Shannon Friesen, a Cropping Management Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says extremely dry weather during harvest resulted in some of the best crop quality reported in years but it has left the province in desperate need of moisture.

Clip-Shannon Friesen-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
We've had a lack of rain over the last number of weeks as well as some very strong winds that have moved right through the province so the topsoil does remain dry and the subsoil also remains tapped out.
Heading into winter topsoil moisture on cropland is rated as 40 percent adequate, 37 percent short and 23 percent very short.
On hay land and pasture it is 32 percent adequate, 35 percent short and 33 percent very short.
Again, that does range depending on where you are in the province but we are going to need very large amounts of rainfall or maybe even some of that nice heavy wet snow prior to freeze up so that we are able to have a typical spring.
If we do not get some of that moisture, seeding conditions as well as growing season conditions are going will be impacted.
So we are hopeful that it does improve for us over the next couple of weeks and that we do have a pretty good winter to set us up for the spring.

Friesen acknowledges, as much as farmers would like to have a lot of snow over the winter, it doesn't necessary add to moisture come spring.
She says, if we do get one of those nice slow melts, we might benefit but we might also see some flooding because the ground is so compacted and so dry that there may not be anywhere for that moisture to go.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork