A cooperative weather forecast is allowing farmers to get a good jump on seeding.

The wet conditions kept producers from making much head way but that has changed in most parts of southwestern Manitoba over the past five days.

Scott Perkin farms near Elgin and he’s more than 60% done seeding.

“It’s an understatement to say it has been a cool, wet spring but as we move into June I think everyone has a little more optimism. I know it’s late for some of the crops grown like corn, soybeans and sunflowers but as we move into the first week of June everyone seems to be finding drier ground.”

Some places picked up two inches of rain recently and that has slowed seeding in those areas.

“In our trading area most of the acres will go in. There will be sloughs and potholes we don’t get to but we’ll probably be 90% plus seeded in this area but there will be field that don’t get seeded outside of our area but not that far away. So there will be some unseeded areas for sure” said Scott Perkin.

Perkin says most producers are over the hump and have anywhere from 60 to 70% of their seeding done and with another week to 10 days of good weather seeding should wrap up for many farmers.

“Oh I think until five or six days ago there was a lot of stress out there in this area. I know of people in other areas that are still in a very bad situation in terms of not getting out into the field. Before this past week people in this region didn’t know if or how they’d get a crop in.”

“Mother nature has given us a break here and allowed us to run the race so to speak. But it’s definitely stressful with a lot of money on the line with many decisions that have to be made in a short period of time.”