Manitoba Agriculture says rainfall in February resulted in substantial damage to the fall seeded cereal crops in eastern Manitoba.
Manitoba Agriculture released its first crop report of the season earlier this week.
Rejean Picard, a Farm Production Extension Specialist Crops with Manitoba Agriculture, reports rainfall events in February resulted in winter kill of the fall seeded cereal crops in the eastern parts of the province.
The winter wheat acres that went in last fall had a good start from early September, a good establishment period, long fall to establish going into winter which was late November, early December before we had freeze up. Then we had a fairly early snowfall which provided a good insulation to the winter cereals and generally good overwintering conditions except that we had a warming period and raining period in February during the winter.
Some of that moisture seems to have caused some issues in the eastern region and Interlake. I’m not sure if there was no rain but I think a combination of heavier soils and level ground contributed to an accumulation of water to freeze on the surface and cause some asphyxiation or basically plants under the ice ran out of oxygen and so we’re seeing some winter damage there.
Further west we’re not seeing that issue happening with lighter soils and more topography and so the rest of the province seems to be recovering much better in terms of those crops.
~ Rejean Picard, Manitoba Agriculture
Picard says growers are still assessing their damaged crops. He says, on the upside, winter wheat has a meaningful ability to tiller so a thinner winter wheat crops can still recover and provide a good yield potential if a sufficient number of plants have survived.
