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Not only seeded but up already
FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Only a few crops were seeded last year and those that were had very poor yields because of the wet and cool summer of 2010. Late in the summer a few farmers were able to seed crops that would come up this spring in a hedge against yet another wet year. As soon as the snow melted from the fields these fall crops began to look very green.

Realising that the wet fall had put a lot of water into the ground there was a lot of concern that this spring would be much like last year. The run off was average to heavy compared to other years but not as serious as it took place from Watson, Wadena and south to the United States border. They are still coping with saturated fields, over flowing lakes and streams and in the far south the Rafferty and nearby damns have been opened dumping even more water into the swollen streams. The Saskatchewan River system is running to capacity but it is still early for the run off from the mountains to reach this part of the prairies. The Gardner Damn at Outlook has been opened to reduce the rise in Lake Diefenbaker.

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Though the spring run off was longer than most years the fields have been drying up nicely largely due to the lack of rain or snow since the departure of the winter cover. Farmers were not going to have two years of empty fields and were out in the fields working the high ground and putting this year's crop in with extreme dispatch.By mid May between Tisdale and Melfort most fields had already been seeded and now it looks like everything in this area as well as over toward Hudson Bay have their crops in the ground and in the Tisdale area the crop of 2011 has been turning the fields green. Not just the black fields but the stubble fields as well are turning green.

Oddly enough things here are pretty dry and dusty. The ground has plenty of moisture but a nice little shower or two would be just fine. I noticed on Monday when I worked up the garden that the soil was damp enough to stick to my shoes but after being tiled it was dry on Tuesday.

Once again the issue of warmth that was a problem with last year's growing season has slowed the development but we have had lots of sunlight and tonight the temperature is staying just below that 20ºC mark. This is good and gardens and crops will do well with the next few days of predicted warm weather.