Spring seeding is virtually complete for most crops across a big swath of the province and in fact emergence means most producers are now beginning their spraying operations.
In southern regions of Alberta, spraying for grasshoppers and flea beetles is well underway. The main concern according to the report that came out on Friday, is the lack of moisture in many areas. In central regions, the report says the limited rain has been enough to keep crops alive, but soil moisture conditions decreased over the past week. The numbers calculated for this report were compiled before the rain that hit many regions late last week. Pasture and tame hay conditions across the province are continuing to decrease. Overall, 60 percent of the province's tame hay is rated as poor to fair and 40 percent good to excellent. Provincially, emergence is ahead of the 5-year average at 76 percent for all crops. Dry peas and spring wheat are the furthest along.
Harry Brook has seen farmers spraying their crops around the Stettler area, where he lives. The longtime crops specialist says for now, crops are holding their own and looking good but some good June rains would certainly ease concerns for a lot of producers when it comes to crops and hay fields as well. "Well, I've noticed there's also a few land rollers out there, so they're rolling it for forge forged cereals, trying to smooth out the fields. Just a reminder that when you're rolling crops, especially as it emerged, it's best to do it when they're not too large, but do it later in the day so the plants are somewhat wilted. If you're doing it first thing in the morning, there's the potential of having dew or sort of semi sticky soils, so you could just as well rip them up out of the field which you don't want to do.Their stems in the in the morning time is also much more turgid, much more stiff and you can break the stems. Some guys, do that for cereals on purpose, hoping that it'll stool out further and get bigger plants and more forged production, but by and large, if you want a healthy stand, it's probably best to wait in the afternoon for rolling."
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