Saskatchewan Spring Planting Lags Behind Five-Year and Ten-Year Averages

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports, despite rain which caused some seeding delays and slowed crop development over the last week, producers made substantial planting progress.Saskatchewan Agriculture released its weekly crop report yesterday.

Meghan Rosso, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says rainfall occurred across much of the province last week at varying amounts.

Quote-Meghan Rosso-Saskatchewan Agriculture:

Producers made considerable progress with seeding after many regions experienced delays due to rain over the past week.Currently 56 percent of the 2024 crop is in the ground.This is up from 32 percent that was reported seeded last week.This falls behind the five-year average of 76 percent and the ten-year average of 74 percent.Producers are finishing cereals and pulse seeding and many producers are reported moving into canola.

As we look from a regional perspective, the southwest part of our province is at 64 percent complete.The northwest is at 63 percent followed by the southeast at 61 percent.As we move into to the east-central region we're sitting at 54 percent complete followed by the northeast and west-central regions at 48 and 47 percent complete.The rain has slowed some crop development within our regions.

Ultimately, when you look at it from a provincial perspective, most crops are falling in the percent of normal development expected for this time of year but, as you move into the northern regions, we're seeing crops fall a little bit further behind.This is due to seeding delays from moisture along with some of the cooler temperatures we've experienced over the last week.

Rosso says, with some pauses in the rain, producers will be able to get back into the fields to continue with their seeding and herbicide applications and moving cattle to pasture.She reminds everyone to keep safety top of mind while working in the fields and invites anyone with questions to call the Agriculture Knowledge Center at 866-457-2377.