Manitoba Agriculture is reporting that the majority of crops across the province are looking good, but some areas could use more rain to assist in crop development.
Anne Kirk, a cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says isolated thundershowers did bring rain to all parts of the province over the past week, ranging anywhere from about two millimeters to 43 millimetres so, while much of the province is listed as optimal to wet, there are pockets that are dry to very dry so many areas are looking for more rain.
We have seen some weather-related damage. We did have some reports of frost or just below zero temperatures in the northwest and Interlake region this past week and in some of those cases some minor damage to more sensitive crops. Those crops at this stage of the growth stage will hopefully be okay.
We have seen some damage in terms of physiological effects. These extremely hot and then cold temperature swings can cause some stress in the plant and we do see some colour banding on leaves in cereal crops, definitely some damage to leaves and additional stress due to winds. We have had some very windy days that can cause some leaf damage but we are expecting that for the most those crops will resume normal growth and grow out of that.
For insect pests, we are seeing some flea beetle feeding in canola crops so we are seeing some flea beetle spraying but many crops are outgrowing the damage. We are seeing reports of wireworm damage in crops. I don’t have a good estimate of all the regions where we are seeing wireworms but it is fairly widespread and the crop pest report will have more information on some of this insect pests this week.
Then in soybeans we are seeing some iron deficiency, chlorosis present in some areas of the province.
~ Anne Kirk, Manitoba Agriculture
Kirk anticipates a lot of herbicide application will be taking place over the next week and producers will be scouting crops for any disease problems or insect pests.
