Farmers Take Advantage Of Summer-Like Weather

Farmers have been taking advantage of the warmer temperatures this week to catch up on spring seeding.

 

Drew Lerner is the Senior Agricultural Meteorologist with World Weather Inc.

 

"We managed to develop a ridge of high pressure this week across the middle of North America and that really helped to force the warm air up into the region," he said. "Even more important than that, has been the development of a very strong low pressure system in western Saskatchewan that has now moved into eastern portions of Alberta and that has really pumped the winds up and forced a lot of warmth up from the States and so the end result here is that we've had a little snapshot of summer time weather."

 

Lerner says there's a lot of variation across the province when talking about soil moisture.

 

"We are noting a very dry bias in the west central and some of the southwest part of the province, mostly near the Saskatchewan border. The Foxwarren area, Russel and some areas southward certainly are in need of moisture. It's almost critically dry right now, seed is in the ground but it can't germinate."

 

Lerner is expecting next week to be cooler with rain and warmer temperatures returning as we head into June.

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.