Pastures looking good

Many cattle were turned out to pasture earlier than normal this year.

Melissa Atchison is vice president of Manitoba Beef Producers.

"There wasn't a lot of a choice. You were either out of seed or you scrounged some up from far away but the feed pile is definitely gone and there's certainly not a lot of reserves going into next year. It's a first year for many folks not having a reserve pile going into the carry over for the winter. There was some cows going out maybe perhaps before the pastures were ready but desperate times call for desperate measures."

Atchison says pastures are looking good this year, although some of the low lying areas are still under water.

She commented on how forage crops are looking.

"Pretty good actually. The alfalfa is coming up nicely. Had a bit of a frost...It did touch some things here and there. The alfalfa looks a little bit curled up and a bit of winterkill on some of that alfalfa actually. It was a bit stressed last year with the drought, obviously. Forage crops are coming up good. We could just use some more heat...we actually could use a little bit of rain."

Atchison notes it's good to see dugouts topped up after the drought last year.