Saskatoon -
A cool spring across the Prairies has slowed the progress of many farmers who are praying that June will bring them a much needed change in the weather.
In Alberta and Saskatchewan, farmers have managed to put most of their crops in the ground. But some land is so dry, seeds are just laying in dust and farmers fear they may not germinate.
However, Manitoba producers are dealing with too much moisture.
"They're looking for rain, they can have some of ours," says Robert McLean, a farmer near Manitou in southern Manitoba. "It's been such a cool, damp spring, it's never really dried out."
McLean says he only has 40 per cent of his canola and wheat crops seeded. Normally he'd be finished by this time of year, but most of his fields aren't dry enough. An extremely wet fall combined with recent dumps of rain have saturated his fields.
And there's been no warm sunshine to dry things out. In fact, it's been so wet that McLean has been forced to tow his tractor out of the mud a few times. Although he's stressed, others are even worse off.
"There's some farmers that haven't put a seed in the ground yet."
Some of the central and eastern areas of Manitoba near the Red River that flooded earlier this spring are still under water.
"I'm not sure some of those guys are going to get a crop in there this year. There's still water running out of the fields there," says Ian Wishart, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers in Winnipeg. "It is really wet there. They need a lot of good weather."
Bruce Burnett, director of weather and crop surveillance for the Canadian Wheat Board in Winnipeg, says the beginning of June is considered late to be planting crops such as wheat, canola and corn.
Farmers may have to change their plans and plant flax, oats and barley or soy beans instead.
"In agriculture, we all seem to be optimists about these things," Burnett says. "So, hopefully we get a window here so that most of this land can get planted."
Further west in Saskatchewan and Alberta, cold weather and some strange mid-May snow in northern areas delayed seeding. But 80 to 90 per cent of crops are in now.
Dry conditions are causing concern in eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan.
"There's a need in the next week to two weeks to get a rain out in the western side of the Prairies," he said. "Because, unlike Manitoba, they've been quite dry now for a considerable period of time."
