Seeding into muck

An extension was announced last week to the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance seeding deadline. While a commendable gesture, it may not be in a producer’s best interests to still be trying to seed on June 15 or 20. Seeding into mud typically results in poor emergence and a poor crop. And yield potential steadily declines as seeding moves later. On land that’s too wet to seed, Saskatchewan Crop Insurance provides an Unseeded Acreage Payment. While advertised at $50 an acre, it doesn’t work out that high after you consider the deductible and apply the seeding intensity factor. Typically the payment works out to more like $30 or $40 per unseeded acre. That isn’t a lot of money and you will still have weed control costs on that land later in the season. Still, in many cases, it looks pretty good compared to what you might earn by growing a substandard cereal crop. The picture is better with canola due to better price prospects and better crop insurance coverage, so there is more incentive to keep trying to get canola seeded right up to the deadline. In some instances, canola is being spread by high flotation outfits and then harrowed into the saturated soil. Typically this is land where fertilizer has already been applied and a lot of the nutrients will be wasted if there’s no crop this year. I’m Kevin Hursh.