Fall Rains And Winter Snows Needed To Recharge Saskatchewan Soil Moisture Reserves

 

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports, with the 2017 harvest virtually complete, the province's farmers will be looking for as much rain as they can get between now and freeze up to prepare the soil for next year's crop.

 

Saskatchewan Agriculture's weekly crop report, released on Thursday, indicates the 2017 provincial harvest is very close to wrapping up with 98 percent of the crop combined.

 

Shannon Friesen, a Cropping Management Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says, with the drier conditions many producers in the north, particularly in the west central region, have been able to reclaim land lost to flooding over the last number of years and over the past couple of weeks farmers have been busy in the fields with fall work combining any remaining crop and putting down fertilizer.

 

 

We are looking for rain and as much as we can get, mostly in the south part of the province but areas of the central region are in also dire need of some moisture prior to freeze up.

 

We are hopeful that even though it has been warm and dry and we've been able to get a lot of field work done we are looking for significant amounts of moisture, hopefully even some of that heavy wet snow prior to freeze up.

 

For the most part the south is looking for more and the north is kind of half and half right now, all depending on where you are.

 

Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?