Farmers in the Weyburn region continued to make some progress on seeding this past week, after a delay caused by a dump of much needed moisture in the form of heavy, wet snow on May 11 and 12.

Topsoil moisture improved significantly both for seeding and on pasture and hay lands from the snowfall, as well as from smaller subsequent showers.

Seeding in crop district 2A, which encompasses the Weyburn and surrounding RMs, has reached 40 per cent done as of May 16, which is in line with the provincial average of 41 per cent completion of seeding.

The provincial average is ahead of the five-year average of 37 per cent.

The local completion of 40 per cent is double that of a year ago, when only 20 per cent of the seeding had been completed by mid-May.

After the snowfall, three-quarters of the area's crop reporters said the topsoil moisture levels are adequate, compared to only 18 per cent the week before.

Terry Bedard, an agricultural economist for Sask. Ag and Food, noted a number of crop reporters in this area had said some people were holding back on some seeding until moisture came.

For hay and pasture land, 54 per cent of crop reporters said the moisture is now adequate, up from only two per cent the week prior.

"They should've had the moisture earlier, but the feeling is this will certainly help the pastures now," said Bedard, noting this is important as some livestock producers in the southeast are reporting they're starting to run out of feed for their animals.

Some early-seeded crops are emerging, and with the moisture back in the soil, more farmers may decide to plant oilseeds, and there may be less summerfallow.

With the snowfall, some reporters north of Weyburn indicated some concern for the effects of frost on newly-emerged crops, but time will tell if there was any damage from the frost, said Bedard.

As for any effect on grasshoppers, Bedard said cool damp conditions are not good for newly-hatched grasshoppers, so it will depend how many were hatched or in the process of hatching when the snowfall came.

Producers will have to wait until later in the spring to see if there is any lasting effect of the snow on hopper numbers.

The amount of moisture by RM varied throughout the area, from a low of 13 millimetres recorded in the RMs of Francis and Tecumseh, to 20 mm in the RM of Weyburn, 25 in Brokenshell, 22 in Fillmore, 24 in Wellington RM, 26 mm in Laurier and Scott RMs, up to 31 mm in the RM of Norton, 37 in Cymri, 33 mm in Lomond, 37 in Caledonia, 40 mm in Lake Alma, 34 in Surprise Valley, and 36 mm in The Gap.