Some acres will be left unseeded due to rain: Alberta Crop Report

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Due to more rain over the past week, it is expected that some acres will be left as unseeded in the Lakeland, the latest Alberta Crop Report released on Friday said.

Soils in low area fields remain saturated in the Lakeland, resulting in poor planting conditions, but some producers are still hoping to seed more greenfeed and silage crops.

Growth is slightly behind normal in the region, when conditions were surveyed last Tuesday.

At least 30 millimetres of rain fell over the past week with some areas reporting up to 80mm.

While fall seeded crops are in the booting stage, spring seeded crops are mostly at the end of seeding growth stage of development. About 54 per cent of canola are still in the 1-3 leaf/node stage with another 46 per cent reported in the 4-6 leaf/nodestage.

For dry peas, about 28 per cent are in the 1-3 leaf/node stage, 61 per cent in the 4-6 leaf/node stage and 11 per cent in the 7-12 leaf/node stage.

Post-emergence spraying has been slow due to wet conditions and is now 35 per cent completed.

Some gopher and flea beetles infestations have been reported in the north east region.

Surface soil moisture is rated (sub-surface soil moisture ratings shown in brackets) at 1(1) per cent fair, 21(17) per cent good and 69(76) per cent excellent, with 9(6) per cent excessive.

Tame hay growing conditions are reported as 6per cent fair, 70 per cent good and 24 per cent excellent.

Provincewide, rainfall in the areas with already near or at the field moisture capacity resulted in excessive soil moisture and flooding out in crop and in some cases in tame hay fields.

Due to saturated fields, some producers need to re-seed their fields with cereals for greenfeed and silage.