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Heavy Downpours Causing Crop Disease Headaches

It has been a blessing overall, but sometimes heavy recent rainfall is creating new headaches for some Saskatchewan pulse growers.
 
Over the past couple of weeks, the province’s crop report has alluded to increasing reports of disease in pulse crops, including root rot in peas and lentils – something crops extension specialist Cory Jacob this week attributed to the prevalence of sudden, heavy downpours that have allowed water to pond in the low-lying areas of fields.
 
Storms a few weeks ago dumped as much a 3-4 inches in some areas of the province, with some pockets now having seen up to 10 inches in the past 2-3 weeks alone, he said. With drought impacting many Saskatchewan production areas for months or even years, the moisture has obviously been welcomed, but it has come too fast, too hard in some cases.
 
“Too much moisture. . . I don’t think there we’re quite there yet,” Jacob said. “It’s more a symptom of a lot of rain at once and the moisture can’t run off quick enough.”
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Drought Now, Cold Weather To Come, Grain State Outlook

Video: Drought Now, Cold Weather To Come, Grain State Outlook

Colder weather ahead is the call from Eric Hunt with University of Nebraska Extension. We dig into the forecast for the months to come and look back at what happened at the end of the growing season, including the conditions that allowed southern corn rust to thrive. Eric also breaks down the current drought situation, highlighting where it’s driest now and where the conditions are changing. We wrap on the spring outlook and the current La Nina pattern in place and and what’s driving this cold snap. Yes, Eric said polar vortex in this conversation.