More producers were able to get out into the fields to get seeding underway for this year, with seeding at 23 per cent done in the southeast region overall.
Broken down by crop district, the 2A district (Weyburn region) was at 28 per cent completion, while district 3ASE (Radville-Lake Alma-Minton) was 33 per cent done, according to Sask. Agriculture’s weekly crop report.
This progress is behind the five-year average of 39 per cent for this time of year. Provincially, seeding is at 18 per cent, also behind the five-year average of 25 per cent.
One Weyburn area producer, Mainil Farms, made excellent progress in the past week, with the crew reaching about 65-70 per cent done their lands by the end of day Friday, as they finished off a canola crop just south of Weyburn.
Davin Mainil and his father Dale, along with workers from the farm, had two tractors going with seed tanks and anhydrous ammonia tanks, each one capable of seeding 250 acres with full tanks. His brother Josh was seeding lentils on their land in the Fillmore area.
Aside from a brief rain delay in the previous week, they had been able to make good progress, and Davin estimated they may be able to finish up seeding by mid-week, if the weather cooperated.
Dale added that their soil moisture on their Weyburn area parcels has been really good, but the Fillmore lands are wetter and may cause some delay to finishing up.
Most of the southeast region received some precipitation in the form of rain and snow in the past week, but the amounts of moisture were small.
The RMs of Weyburn and Brokenshell recorded one millimetre each, Fillmore had a trace, Wellington had four mm, and in the RM of Francis, rainfall amounts ranged from 2.5 to 10 mm. The RM of Laurier ranged from 0.9 to 3 mm.
Pastures are starting to green up, with some farmers in crop district 2B concerned with a lack of moisture and on-farm water supplies for livestock due to little runoff.
Moisture conditions in the region improved slightly, with cropland topsoil moisture rated as 10 per cent surplus, 82 per cent adequate, seven per cent short and one per cent very short.
Hay land and pasture topsoil moisture is rated as three per cent surplus, 79 per cent adequate, 16 per cent short and two per cent very short.
