(Resource News International) — The absence of snowcover in
southern regions of Canada’s Prairie grain belt has created concerns
over winterkill in the winter wheat crop.
“No one is really sure of the extent of the damage,” said Jake
Davidson, an executive manager with Winter Cereals Canada.
“However, there are indications that there has been some damage,
particularly in the southern regions, where there has essentially
been no snowcover for the crop over the winter.”
Damage to the crop could be as little as 10 per cent,
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before the extent of the winterkill is known.
“There are producers who are definitely worried about
winterkill, and there are producers who are not worried,”
Davidson said.
Those who aren’t worried about winterkill have
indicated that they have seen similar conditions before, with
damage to the crop only being minimal, he said.
The one saving grace for the winter wheat crop
so far has been that it has not warmed up enough in most growing
regions to take the crop out of dormancy. “That is when the crop would be the most vulnerable to any
Winter wheat in the southern areas of
Saskatchewan were the most vulnerable to winterkill, Davidson said.
Snowcover in areas of southwestern Manitoba was also
believed to have been a bit on the thin side, but it was also not
known whether winterkill damage occurred.
The fact that there were some very cold temperatures across
these regions during the winter is the concern. “With readings
hitting -45°C, combined with windchills over
-50°C, there must have been some damage somewhere,”
Davidson said.
Winter wheat area seeded in Manitoba in the fall of 2007
totalled around 600,000 acres, Davidson said. In Saskatchewan,
winter wheat area was also around the 600,000-acre level while in
the Lethbridge area of Alberta, there were roughly 300,000 acres
seeded to winter wheat.
Winter wheat seedings in the fall of 2006 in Western Canada
totalled 1.1 million acres.
Winter wheat seeded in the central to more northern regions
of Saskatchewan and Manitoba had more than enough snowcover to
work with during the winter, Davidson said. As a result, there
were very few concerns there regarding winterkill.
In fact, producers in those regions
specifically chose winter wheat as wet conditions in the spring
have previously prevented them from seeding crops, he said.
If any Manitoba producers have lost their
winter wheat to winterkill, they will be able to have crop
insurance cover their total reseeding costs, Davidson said. Producers in
Saskatchewan are also covered by crop insurance if there is
winterkill, but the reseeding cost coverage is not quite as
great.
“All producers who planted winter wheat are hoping the crop
did great over the winter, especially given the recent values
available for the crop,” Davidson said.
