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Prairie drought could limit planted acres

| 4 min read

By OrganicBiz

<p>Snowpack concerns on the Prairies has been leading many growers to wonder what could happen come spring. Photo: Thinkstock</p>

By Glen Hallick
Glacier FarmMedia staff

While it’s still somewhat early for farmers to be deciding their planting intentions for 2022, there are some indications as to which organic crops they’re leaning towards.

Concerns regardless the snowpack on the Canadian Prairies– be it too much or too little – has been leading many growers to wonder what could happen come spring. Will there be a sufficient amount of soil moisture or will things be too dry or too wet?

Mylo Chubb of Stonehenge Global Seeds in Assiniboia, Sask., said he’s concerned that conventional and organic farmers could choose not to seed this spring due to severe drought.

Down in our area [in southern Saskatchewan] I actually see some land not being seeded. – Mylo Chubb

The Canadian Drought Monitor shows the area around Assiniboia to be abnormally dry to in a moderate drought, but Chubb pointed to the region being dry for the last three years.

“Down in our area [in southern Saskatchewan] I actually see some land not being seeded, because we have zero sub-soil moisture. Unless it rains a lot between now and during seeding, there are going to be acres pulled out,” Chubb stated, noting there’s barely enough snow to cover the ground.

“If crop insurance doesn’t cover the cost, I don’t think people will seed,” he added.

As for Scott Shiels of Grain Millers Canada in Yorkton, Sask., about 370 kilometres to the northeast of Chubb, he said there’s plenty of snow. The drought monitor shows the Yorkton area to be in a moderate drought.

Shiels quipped he has borrowed his neighbour’s front-end loader for a total of 24 hours to clean his yard of snow so far this winter, compared to all of three hours last winter.

While there are several parts of the Prairies well inundated with snow, the Canadian Drought Monitor shows significant portions of Saskatchewan and Alberta to in a severe or extreme drought. The situation in Manitoba is somewhat more moderate.

Shiels noted that it’s still early for farmers to be planning what they want to seed in this year, but said there will likely be plenty of acres for the standbys of wheat, oats and barley. He would like to see more flax planted this year because the amount of acres has been on the decline, “but I think those acres might be down for organic and conventional.”

At this point of the winter there aren’t many contracts being made available to organic farmers, which has led Shiels to believe most organic acres remain undecided.

Bill Longman of Sunrise Foods in Saskatoon, Sask. concurred that organic farmers will plant a fair amount of wheat and oats.

“Some of the pulses and oilseeds will have to buy some acres” he said, meaning those prices will need to increase for farmers being more willing to grow those crops.

Unlike Shiels, Longman has encountered more interest in flax, largely due its exorbitant price. However, Longman said there hasn’t been too much interest in rye, durum and peas. He suggested that lentils and mustard might be good options for dry areas as they’re much more amiable to such conditions than other crops. Longman estimated farmers will be making their decisions for 2022 during the first half of March.

We had a late fall, we had a wet fall. So there are concerns about the quality of the fall cereals that did get planted. – Rob Wallbridge

For Andrew St. John of Beechwood AgriServices in Parkhill, Ont., about 220 kilometers west of Toronto, the planting intentions of farmers will depend on what soybeans will do. The prices for organic grains, he said, have remained strong through the winter, but without any active bids he could not provide any contract prices.

Rita Felder of Field Farms Marketing in Petrolia, Ont., 65 kilometres southwest of Parkhill, declined to cite any prices for another reason – the volatility in the markets being caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Rob Wallbridge, president of the Organic Council of Ontario (OCO) said there are concerns about the winter wheat crop.

“We had a late fall, we had a wet fall. So there are concerns about the quality of the fall cereals that did get planted – how well they are going to come through the winter,” he said noting winter kill is an issue.

Wallbridge also said high input costs could influence what organic farmers in Ontario chose to plant, but weren’t as bad as for conventional crops.

“We are seeing challenges in being able to source things like pellets and compost,” he commented.