Farmers Are Evaluating Crop Conditions After Last Week's Frost

May 25, 2021

A number of areas across the prairies experienced some frosty temperatures last week.

Frost is always a concern, especially in the Spring with crops just starting to emerge.

Autumn Barnes, an Agronomy Specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, says producers will want to be out evaluating the damage.

She says its important producers don't rush out and make decisions on reseeding too soon.

"With a light frost in zero to minus two degrees Celsius, the risk is pretty low for damage to canola, but at minus three to minus four, that's when you might start seeing some more significant injury. Especially if the temperature stayed at a low level, you know, at that minus three or minus four for a few hours."

She notes another concern is that we were coming out of some really warm weather high 20s to 30s, and then we saw the temperature drop significantly which could also mean shock might be a problem.

Matt Struthers, a Crops Extension Specialist says it doesn't matter what crop your talking about, it's always important to give it a few days to recover after a frost.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.