Seeding in Western Manitoba varies from region to region.

Seeding progressed rapidly during last week, with most producers seeding cereals. Spring wheat is 45% complete, with barley at 30%, and oats at 20% complete. Many producers are waiting until they finish cereals before starting on canola. Currently canola seeding progress is in the 5-10% range.

Russell Thiessen farms in the Oak Lake-Griswold area and he expects to be in the field seeding by this weekend. “We’re slowly getting going here. We’re taking our time getting going because of the cool type of weather we’ve had this spring. We’re waiting for the ground to warm up, but we’ll really get rolling by the long weekend or early next week.”

“Moisture conditions are nice, and the low-lying areas are drying up nicely. Hopefully another day or two we can end to end on our fields and get everything done at once and don’t have to go back out and clean things up afterwards.”

Manitoba Agriculture reports Field pea seeding is at 75-80% complete. Peas seeded at the beginning of May are starting to emerge. Soybean seeding also started in some southern areas, with approximately 10% seeding complete. Seeding of grain corn has also started.

“I’d say we’re about one week behind our normal seeding dates on the farm. I don’t think that’s a bad thing because we usually get an extended fall when we get spring weather like this. We’re either on track or about five to seven days behind schedule,” said Russell Thiessen.