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Seeding has begun
Tisdale - Friday, May 10, 2013
by:Timothy W. Shire

On Wednesday, May 8, we made our way down highway 6 to Regina and for the first time this year did not have to deal with ice, snow and visibility issues. The winter is now behind us and the spring run off seems to have run its course at least for most parts of the trip we made. The winter snow cover was lighter from Spalding to Southey yet we noticed that the stream flowing by Watson was still brim full. Raymore had been surrounded with water in 2011 looks pretty normal but north of the town the damage from 2011 is still evident.

I had guessed that it would be early next week before field work got under way but there was plenty of evidence that equipment was heading into the fields south of Dafoe and we saw planting equipment out in the fields in the Raymore area on Wednesday. The picture at the top of the front page of Ensign was taken Wednesday afternoon near Raymore.

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This morning we went two miles west of Tisdale and two miles north and immediately spotted the equipment at the top of this page reloading their seeding equipment while in the field next to it this cultivator harrow combination had already finished a field and was setting out to another. Of course there are lots of fields that will take a bit more time but the process has begun.

With the province’s farms springing to life the province’s highways are busy with anhydrous trucks and huge tractors with implements moving from field to field so pay attention its time to share the highway with the farmers.

Though it is only days since the snow melted away the unfrozen ground has soaked up a significant quantity of water and that is the main factor that is resulting in the rapid drying up of the fields while at the same time providing perfect growing conditions for this year’s crop. Drought conditions are already damaging American crops so farmers in Saskatchewan can expect to once again see excellent prices and demand for their production.