Rain needed for soybeans, other southern Manitoba crops

Seeded soybeans projected to be up more than 40 million acres from 2022

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Published: June 5, 2023

Rain needed for soybeans, other southern Manitoba crops

MarketsFarm – When Toban Dyck started to plant his 600-plus acres of soybeans this year, the soil in the Winkler, Man. area had pretty decent moisture content. But following the combination of hot temperatures and strong winds with little rainfall in May, precipitation is now much needed. 

“There’s still a little bit of moisture there. [During] these hot, windy days everything dries so quickly. A nice rain would be wonderful,” he said. 

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Warm Midwestern temperatures and timely precipitation weighed on corn and soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade coming out of the Independence Day long weekend. Weather should remain a major market driver through the growing season, although some short-term direction could come from the monthly United States Department of Agriculture supply/demand estimates due out on July 11.

Dyck, who was the communications director for Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers and now the principal of the Burr Forest Group, noted the pace of spring planting in Manitoba’s Red River Valley region had noticeably picked up after a later than usual start. 

“It looked like it was going to be a late spring. We’re finished seeding,” he said in an interview Tuesday; his soybeans went into the ground a couple of weeks ago.  

“Last year we finished on June 9,” he added.

From what Dyck surmised, the amount of acres seeded with soybeans, as well as pulses, has increased this year, at least in the valley region. 

“One indicator of that is how busy the implemented dealers are renting out their rollers. The waiting lists are long,” he said. 

Manitoba Agriculture pegged soybean planting at 90 per cent province wide as of Tuesday. As for the central region, the department placed soybeans at the V1 stage with rolling continuing on some fields. Other areas of the province were 75 to 95 per cent done planting. 

Another issue Dyck pointed out that posed a challenge this spring was fertilizer. Not so much its overall supply but rather getting it to the fields, as suppliers seemed to be short on trucks to move product to where farmers needed it. That may have led to farmers switching from other crops to soybeans, he said. 

As farmers prepared for spring planting Statistics Canada projected Manitoba soybean acres at about 1.56 million, well up from last year’s 1.13 million.  

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

 

About the author

Glen Hallick

Glen Hallick

Reporter

Glen Hallick grew up in rural Manitoba near Starbuck, where his family farmed. Glen has a degree in political studies from the University of Manitoba and studied creative communications at Red River College. Before joining Glacier FarmMedia, Glen was an award-winning reporter and editor with several community newspapers and group editor for the Interlake Publishing Group. Glen is an avid history buff and enjoys following politics.

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