Newly emerged wheat. Photo credit: ID 163161441 © Allexxandar | Dreamstime.com

By Curtis Galbraith

Agriculture

Some Peace Country fields to go unseeded this year

Jun 18, 2020 | 5:30 AM

Some fields in the Peace Country that were to have crops on them will not be seeded this year because they are too wet.

Spirit River farmer and Alberta Barley Commission Director Brent Konstapel says a lot of farms in the Peace got a lot of moisture this spring and did not dry out.

“They won’t get seeded, or maybe something like a summer crop. I’ve heard some guys talk about Timothy or clover later seeded here in June or not seeding until fall, planting winter wheat or fall rye or something like that.”

As for the crops that did get seeded, Konstapel says they don’t look too bad, all things considered. He adds this has been a tough spring, with trying to both plant this year’s crop and finish combining last year’s.

“We had just a little over 3000 acres to combine this spring (plus had to) get seeding (done). It was a grind. With the weather, we had about 11 different rain delays between our combining season and seeding season. It was a long grind from the start of May to the first week of June when we finally had to stop seeding because of the moisture.”

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Some farmers changed plans for what would be seeded when and where as well. Konstapel this is an attempt to get out of the cycle of leaving crops out in the field all winter.

“We ended up seeding barley last. Hopefully, it helped us get our canola in a little earlier so we can make sure we get it off, more of it off, this year.”

Konstapel says spraying for weeds is underway. Insect pests do not seem to be a big problem. Konstapel adds there is a minimal amount of flea beetles around and there is no sign of cutworms.