Rainfall levels for most of Westman continue to be above average this growing season, according to Manitoba Agriculture’s latest crop report.
Of the 36 communities or monitoring stations tracked in the report between May 1 and Aug. 11, just four have received less rain than normal.
Mountainside had seven per cent less rain than normal while Boissevain, Oakburn and St. Lazare were one per cent below normal.
Another community, Kola, is reported to have received a typical amount of rain while the rest of the stations had above-normal rain to varying degrees.
The wettest spot in Westman is said to be the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives’ Brookdale Farm site just north of Brandon at the corner of Highway 10 and Provincial Road 353.
The crop report said that the 345 millimetres of rain it received is 55 per cent above normal.
The second-wettest location in Westman is Shilo, which received 343 mm of rain — 54 per cent above normal.
Carberry is third on the list, having received 318 mm of rain. That represents 43 per cent more rainfall than normal.
The only other community that received more than 300 mm of rain was Wawanesa, which had 307 mm since May 1. That’s 38 per cent above normal.
While precipitation has largely been above normal for Westman, temperatures have trended slightly below normal.
The crop report lists the number of growing degree days, a measurement of how much heat has been accumulated by plants to help them grow.
Just six monitoring stations saw normal or above-normal growing degree days this season: Brookdale Farm, Carberry, Ingelow, Minnedosa, Shilo and Wawanesa.
The community with the lowest number of growing degree days was Oakburn, which received 13 per cent fewer than normal.
Some agricultural producers in the province struggled to get their crops planted on time due to heavy rainfall early in the year, said Jill Verwey, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
She said that some parts of the province, like the Interlake and around Dauphin, were hit harder than others.
“There certainly were some producers that were affected where they didn’t get anything in or half of their crop didn’t get seeded,” said Verwey, whose own farms are in the Portage la Prairie area.
“If you were speaking to the province overall, the statistics really weren’t alarming. But if you happen to be in that area where it was hit with a lot of moisture, then it could have had a negative impact.”
Harvesting for spring crops is only just starting, she said, and yields appear positive so far, though it is still early in the process.
In southwestern Manitoba, she said there wasn’t as much moisture when the crops were filling in. Combined with the wet spring, she said that could potentially mean lower quality yields or lower protein in cereal crops. However, that won’t be determined for a few weeks yet.
Overall, Verwey said the additional moisture helped build up water levels in the soil after a dry 2023.
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