Conditions were nearly perfect for seeding winter cereals this fall but poor timing will likely temper the growth of seeded acres.
Manitoba Agriculture cereals specialist Anne Kirk says seeded acres of winter cereals increased last year but it’s difficult to know whether the trend will continue.
“I think that conditions would have been good for seeding in terms of moisture this year,” says Kirk. “Last year, some farmers would have been concerned with seeding into dry seed beds. But this year, for the most part, seed beds had quite a bit of moisture, but timing of seeding and finding appropriate stubble may have been an issue this year.”
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Ideally, winter cereals are planted into stubble to trap snow over winter, and in terms of crop rotation, it’s preferable that they’re not planted into cereal stubble. In Manitoba, farmers typically plant winter crops in canola stubble.
“Because a large majority of canola hadn’t been harvested by the time that farmers would have wanted to seed their winter cereals, it may have resulted in a move away from some winter wheat acres” says Kirk.
Alex Griffiths, a crop specialist with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), is more optimistic (or at least more willing to speculate) about the prospects for winter cereals.
“If I had to guess, I still think we’ll be at the bare minimum the same number of acres as last year, which was right around, like, 75,000 and probably even more, getting into close to 100,000 acres of winter wheat. And we’ll probably see fall rye numbers increase as well,” says Griffiths.
DUC subsidizes farmers in some parts of the province to plant winter wheat through its Winter Wheat Incentive Program. Ducks, particularly pintails, like sparse cover around their nests and like to nest in winter cereal crops. While fall rye makes good nesting grounds as well, DUC only funds winter wheat because it has more market resilience.
Griffiths acknowledges there have been seeding challenges for farmers interested in planting winter wheat, but says interest has never been higher.
“I’ve had more interest than I can recall in previous years,” he says. He attributes it to the wet spring, which prompted farmers to look for ways to use excess moisture.
“I’ve been seeing a lot of winter cereals while driving around.”
Griffiths says in areas further north, with shorter growing seasons, many farmers didn’t have time to seed.
“I’ve talked to 10 or 12 folks who grow winter wheat every year, and they just never had a chance to get it in this year because harvest was so delayed,” he says. “And these are guys who said that their winter cereals were their best cereal crop of the whole year. So they were really excited to get it seeded again, but it just didn’t quite work out in the timing.”
The conditions that made planting winter cereals more attractive this year were the same ones that made it impossible for many.
“It’s a catch-22,” says Griffiths. “And it’s a tough one because I know all those guys are disappointed.”
Farmers often say there isn’t enough time during harvest to seed winter cereals. DUC recommends they seed in the mornings when heavy dew or rain doesn’t allow combining. But Griffiths says even that was rare this year.
“Honestly, outside of like a couple of days, maybe half of a weekend in September, we haven’t had that at all,” he says. “If you drive around the countryside, guys are combining at 10 or 11 in the morning and it’s just mind-blowing, because back in the day, you couldn’t even touch it until like two in the afternoon if you had any amount of dew.”
Griffiths says some farmers planted past the insurance deadline for full crop coverage because conditions were good this fall. Sept. 25 was the deadline for planting fall rye and winter wheat for full coverage and Sept. 30 for 80 per cent coverage.
“I’ve been surprised by how many people went past the 100 per cent MASC coverage window,” he says. “With the fall that we’ve been having, I think they’ll have pretty good success.”
