By Colin Budd
“It’s dry, ” Harry Brook, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture, said pointing out the obvious last week.
“But, I also say that we have never lost a crop in March.”
Hoping for more moisture is what many producers in this area will be doing this spring. Conditions in the province are the lowest they’ve been in 25 years in some places. It’s just one more factor that everyone will be taking into consideration when choosing what to plant this year. They certainly aren’t getting much help when it comes to price.
“If you look at the prices, crop prices are pretty bad, it’s hard to see any profitability in almost all of our crops,” said Brook, adding worldwide production of crop, barley and oats have put a lid on the price ceiling.
“Even if we had a total crop failure year, it’s not going to do much about price.”
To that end, he’s expecting a lot of canola to be planted because it is one of the more profitable options out there. That being said he does have some unease.
“That does concern me, especially if people are shortening up their rotations. If you put canola in too frequently you’re setting yourself up for a potential disaster, primarily with pests, whether its weeds or insects.”
Brook said that’s why there are issues with club root in parts of the province.
“Four or five years of growing canola with clubroot and cultivating you’ve basically infested your crop on these spores and you can’t grow canola because you’ve basically screwed yourself up.”
The same could apply to blackleg said Brook.
“I can’t stress enough the importance of a good rotation, but sometimes economics – the fact that you can’t make a profit growing wheat, barley or oats – dictates you’re going to shorten your rotation or go to something that’s not suitable for the long term.”
Brook has been hearing people in non-traditional lentil markets are looking at planting the seed, which could also affect prices in that market, which has been a little better than most.
It’s just part of what has been a little bit of an unconventional spring so far in the province. Even the traditionally dry south is looking good after a strong summer of rain last year.
“Their soil moisture is not totally tapped out like central and northern Alberta,” said Brook.
“That’s an area where it’s normally considered drier but this year, they’re probably better off than we are.”