Seeding is well underway in Western Manitoba.

Intermittent rainfall has delayed some seeding but for the most part operations are underway across the region.

Ron Krahn farms in the Rivers area and he’s about a quarter done his seeding. “We started last Monday and were able to seed all of last week. We thought we’d run out of dry fields by the end of last week, but the sun and winds made a big difference. He adds things look pretty good.”

“Our fields are plenty wet and we have lots of sub soil moisture from last year. We were wet last spring so many of the low spots that didn’t get seeded last year they didn’t have any crop to hold moisture so the lows spots this year are quite wet.”

 

Ron Krahn is pleased to be on his fields well before the May long weekend. Last year he said they did some seeding by the long weekend but put the bulk of their crop in after the long week in May.

“This feels earlier than last year but when you look at the long-term averages it’s definitely on the later side but it’s not too concerning.”

Krahn feels farmers are hitting the fields with mixed emotions this year.

 

“We’ve had a great run in grain farming the past couple of years. Excellent prices and it has been good. I think as grain prices have been falling and input costs have risen significantly but that’s just like most of society it's the higher inflation. There’s a certain amount of concern as to how this year will turn out. Certainly, machinery prices keep climbing and many of us have a hard time wrapping our head around those prices, but farmers keep buying.”