Last week's Manitoba Agriculture Crop Report highlighted this year's slower than average seeding progress, with 37% of Manitoba's crop in the ground, compared to 57% from last year, and the 5 year average of 43% for this time of year.
Ron Kostyshyn is a man of many hats when it comes to agriculture: Dauphin MLA, Manitoba's Minister of Agriculture, and a farmer for more than 35 years. He said this type of seeding season isn't unusual, but it's also not very common. The big contributor to the delayed seeding season this year was the long winter and rapidly-changing weather over the past couple of weeks.
"It's not the first time producers have been seeding at this time of the year, and hopefully from here on in, mother nature will correct itself...we appreciate the moisture, but the tap could be turned off, and timely rains from here on in would be great, more so now, sunshine is the necessity," said Kostyshyn.
Between the late snow, heavy rains, and strong winds in the Parkland recently, there's been a considerable delay with seeding, and once farmers were able to get out and start, the weather would change again. Looking ahead at the forecast for this week from Environment Canada, we're about done with the recent spot of rain. Temperatures are expected to hit as high as 35 degrees late this week, with plenty of sun.
Kostyshyn said the forecasted warm and sunny weather is exactly what farmers need right now to be able to put their crop in the ground, but even if everything goes according to plan, we're still at the mercy of mother nature.
"[The sun] definitely will dry out the soil so the farmers can put some seed in the ground...we can do the right amount of seed, the right amount of fertilizer, right amount of things, but the weather conditions play such a crucial role to have a bountiful crop," said Kostyshyn.
Looking at the bigger picture for agriculture this year, there's lots of uncertainty when it comes to input and commodity prices. International pressures have put a good bit of strain on input prices, whether that's farm fuels or nitrogen-based fertilizers, and commodity prices aren't the most predictable right now. Though there have been some recent measures taken to help reduce those pressures, like the Federal government's removal of the Fuel Excise Tax, the level of concern is still very high.
Earlier in the year, Kostyshyn had a chat with Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald, who himself has been a farmer in Price Edward Island for years before his career in politics. Their chat focused a lot on what could be done, both federally and provincially, to help give farmers that extra bit of relief they need.
"Producers are faced with higher fertilizer costs and everything else, fuel costs are going up, and all I can say is the commodity prices need to come up again, and that's depending on other countries, how they do in their harvests, so they create a bit of a shortage that our commodity prices go up accordingly to reward the farmers...ongoing discussions will continue with the Federal Government in the need of support. We know that those discussions will continue to happen as we move forward," said Kostyshyn.
Kostyshyn said he'll be attending a meeting with MacDonald and other Provincial agriculture ministers in early June to talk about how other provinces are doing, and how they're going to try to lift a bit of the burden from the common farmer.
"Let's keep our fingers crossed and a few other things crossed so we can have a bountiful harvest, and commodity prices go up come late seeding, late summer, and reward to the farmers that they get a decent financial return off their hard work," said Kostyshyn.
730 CKDM NewsNow will continue to provide updates on Manitoba Agriculture's Crop Reports as the season progresses.
