Rain Across Saskatchewan Delays Spring Planting but Replenishes Topsoil Moisture

Saskatchewan agriculture reports rainfall this past week across much of the province slowed spring planting while replenishing moisture reserves but planting remains ahead of the five and ten-year averages. Saskatchewan Agriculture released its weekly crop report yesterday for the period from May 13th to 19th.
Tyce Masich, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says there was a lot more rainfall in Saskatchewan this past week than previous weeks.

Clip-Tyce Masich-Saskatchewan Agriculture:

Most of the rain fell in the southern parts of the province and the southeast in particular got a lot rainfall. They Weyburn-Estevan area got anywhere between 40 and 120 millimeters of rain.It really depended on where you are so that really slowed seeding progress in the southeast for three or four days at minimum if not longer.

Then there were also some spots in the southwest and east central parts of the province that got notable rainfall where there were seeding delays in those areas as well but, overall seeding progress in the province is ahead of the five and ten-year averages in all regions of the province. In most regions pretty much all pulse crops, so field peas and lentils have been planted.There are a few acres left of those crop types to be planted and the same can be said for spring seeded cereal crops.

Wheats, barley, durum, most of those crops have been seeded. There are a few areas where oats are a little behind in terms of seeding progress for spring cereal crops but still, they're coming along fairly nicely and right now producers are working to get their oilseed crops into the ground.That includes flax and canola and soybeans as well because they're generally seeded a bit later in Saskatchewan.

Masich most of Saskatchewan had good snowmelt so soil moisture conditions going into seeding were strong for pretty much the entire province but due to dry conditions the first couple of weeks of May, soil was dropping off but the abundant rain this past week has replenished moisture. He notes the northwest and northeast regions received minimal precipitation this past week but moisture conditions in those areas remain adequate with the exception of a few pockets in the north and along the Saskatchewan Alberta border.