29 Jun 10 Saskatchewan - Land of Lakes

Saskatchewan June 2010

 

Tags: precipitation, Saskatchewan

03 May 10 **Busy times ahead**

The last few weeks have seen two massive precipitation events. For the time being, drought fears have been largely eliminated on the western Prairies. In some eastern regions of Saskatchewan, excess moisture is now a problem. The prospects for pasture and hay are looking good. In addition to the moisture, there has been a limited amount of frost this spring. The grass is thriving and the trees are greener, sooner than usual. Producers are itching to get seeding, but even after the rain stops its going to take a while for fields to be dry enough. Theres lots of time to get the crop in the ground, but if the weather turns wet once again, seeding delays will become worrisome. May 21 is the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance deadline for seeding chickpeas and for seeding camelina in the brown soil zone. In most years, early seeded crops end up with superior yields. Seeding this spring will become general later than average. When outfits do start rolling, producers will be pushing hard and that will put strains on all the input suppliers; everything from seed and innoculant to farm equipment mechanics. Hopefully, everyone associated with crop agriculture is well rested, because there are busy times ahead. Im Kevin Hursh.

Tags: brown soil zone, camelina, chickpeas, drought, precipitation, Saskatchewan Crop Insurance, western Praries

12 Apr 10 Extensive wind damage

It isn’t unusual for wind to cause damage in Saskatchewan, but it is unusual to see wind damage over such a large area. Last week’s “big blow” toppled grain bins, ripped off siding, shingles and bin lids, and blew down corrals over a big chunk of Saskatchewan. It isn’t surprising considering many areas clocked winds of well over 100 km per hour. There were also cases of severe wind erosion. Fortunately, cultivating summerfallow to control weeds is not a common practice anymore. It’s these fields that took the brunt of the high winds. Back in the 80s, a wind like we had last week would have turned the sky black with topsoil. While extreme wind is never good news, the weather pattern now seems to be altered. After months of below average precipitation, there was some snow with all the wind and there’s more rain and snow in the forecast. In the dry areas, producers have their fingers crossed hoping the forecast is correct. I’m Kevin Hursh.

Tags: dry areas, precipitation, snow, topsoil, wind damage

09 Apr 10 Precip teaser

The storm system racing through Alberta and Saskatchewan is not going to drop enough rain and snow to erase the huge moisture deficit on the western Prairies, but it’s a start. The system has had some tremendous wind speeds. Combined with snow, that has created some stormy conditions. However, the precipitation amounts being reported and the amounts still expected won’t add up to a great deal of water in most areas. The good news is that the weather pattern seems to have changed and there’s a bit more moisture forecast for the days ahead. March came in like a lamb and went out like a lamb and was pretty lamb-like for the whole month. That was favourable for the cattle producers that were in the midst of their calving season, but it isn’t normal weather. Usually at some point in March, you get a good storm or two. It’s been drying out way too fast in the western Prairie. While winds of 80 to 100 km an hour are never useful, it’s great to see some weather disturbances that at least tease us with a bit of moisture. I’m Kevin Hursh.

Tags: cattle producers, moisture deficit, precipitation, weather disturbances, Western Prairies, winds

22 Oct 09 20 Oct 09- Unkind October for combining

Little wonder that harvest progress has been minimal in recent weeks. The past thirty days have been a lot wetter than normal in most parts of Saskatchewan. The precipitation map published by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for September 19 to October 18 shows a wide north – south band where precipitation has been more than double the norm. The wet band includes Prince Albert, Melfort, Wynyard, Regina, Weyburn and Estevan. Rainfall amounts are in the two to three inch range. East of the heaviest band, including locations like Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, precipitation has been 1.5 times normal. That’s also the case east of the band. Province wide, only small areas around Meadow Lake in the northwest and in the southwest corner, just east of Consul have had below normal precipitation for the past month. Unfortunately for the many producers still struggling with harvest, the weather forecast over the upcoming week is calling for more rain and/or snow. There may not be a lot of precipitation, but it appears that combining progress will be isolated and limited. October is turning out to be an ugly month for getting grain in the bin. I’m Kevin Hursh.

Tags: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Combining, harvesting, precipitation

26 Jun 09 Take precipitation maps with a grain of salt

Precipitation maps can show a lot of deviation depending upon who’s putting them together. Yesterday’s crop report from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture includes a colour-coded precipitation map for the week ending June 22 as well as a map of total accumulated precipitation since April 1. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada publishes ongoing precipitation maps on its Drought Watch website. There are a lot of differences between the two sources. Take the area where I farm northwest of Swift Current. According to Ag Canada, rainfall in the past week has been less than an inch. According to the Sask Ag crop report, rainfall topped two inches. That’s quite a discrepancy. Based on farm rain gages in the immediate area, Sask Ag seems to have it right. There are a lot of other discrepancies as well, such as in a big area northeast and southeast of Regina where Sask Ag says there was over two inches and Ag Canada has it pegged at a lot less. The accumulated precip maps since April 1 also look significantly different between the two sources. Rainfall can vary a great deal over a short distance, and the Sask Ag maps are probably more accurate since they’re based on measurements taken by volunteer crop reporters in nearly every rural municipality. I’m Kevin Hursh.

www.hursh.ca

Kevin Hursh, PAg, CAC

Tags: crop, maps, precipitation