24 Like Us on Facebook: BetterFarmingON Better Farming | February 2024 If, however, growers were to focus on more drought-resistant crops, he would expect them to consider cereals like wheat, oats, and barley, pulse like peas, and oilseed crops like sunflowers. What Voogt doesn’t anticipate is summer fallow. “It’s very uncommon for southern Manitoba to experience prolonged drought conditions (and then) to implement summer fallow as a strategy to conserve or build up moisture,” he says. Instead, most growers are likely to respond to any ongoing dry conditions during the fall by not tilling fields to allow for the best snow trap possible. They may also end up changing their spring planting dates. “If field conditions are fit, growers will likely go out and seed earlier than normal to try and capture and make use of what moisture is there,” says Voogt. As for winter cereal growers, they’re just hoping for adequate snow cover. “Ideally, farmers want their previous crop stubble to be tall enough to hold at least four inches of snow to keep soil temperatures at crown depth warm enough for the winter cereal crop to overwinter,” says Manitoba Agriculture’s cereal specialist Anne Kirk. Ontario Agriculture Canada’s Drought Monitor reported southern sections of Ontario having lower-than-normal precipitation going into the winter season, which continued the dry trend that southern Ontario experienced during the fall. But that’s not to suggest the region is gasping for moisture. While on the drier side, AGRIS Co-operative’s senior agronomist Dale Cowan points out that a decent amount of rain fell in some areas toward the end of the growing season. In fact, there were even cases of farmers unable to harvest their last-standing corn due to their fields being too wet. If anything, a crop like winter wheat is better off with drier soils. Too much moisture jeopardizes the crop, which can be damaged by flood, frost heaving, and ice sheets. “We’ve got good emergence, good stand establishment, so being on the dry side for winter wheat is not a problem. We want rainfall when we’re starting to fill grain next year in July,” says Cowan. For spring seeding of soybeans, corn, and cereals, he says growers need to be careful not to overwork the ground and dry it out with excessive tillage. “We want to conserve that moisture and get the seed into the proper depth into good moisture. We just have to adjust our management to the conditions at the time of planting.” Planting times could be altered as well, with a dry start resulting in corn and soybeans getting seeded in April instead of mid-May, Cowan says. Weed control is another dryness aspect of which farmers need to be mindful. Dry conditions toughen up weeds, making them harder to kill, and growers would be well served to get out early when their weeds are still small. Dryness also presents a heightened risk of weed escapes, Cowan notes. “You’re always on your toes to adjust management for what the weather conditions will throw at you.” BF El Niño Shawn Cabak photo El Niño is a double-edged sword for cattle producers: Cattle don’t need to eat as much over a mild winter, but the ground will be parched. RICHARD KAMCHEN Richard Kamchen is a veteran agricultural freelance writer based in Winnipeg, Man.
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