Disease control top of mind for Sask. farmers at 2017 Crop Production Show

With snow-covered fields, crop farmers rolled into Saskatoon this week for a chance to plan their growth in 2017.

The Western Canadian Crop Production Show kicked off Monday at Prairieland Park.

It runs until Jan. 12 in conjunction with Crop Production Week – featuring a running list of AGMs – and CropSphere 2017, which includes experts on all topics related to production and marketing in Saskatchewan.    

The event brings together farmers from Saskatchewan, neighbouring provinces and around the world  to discuss plans for the upcoming year.

“People associated with the various commodities view this as a great time to see what’s happening in Saskatchewan agriculture – and Western Canadian agriculture,” said Kevin Hursh, a Sask. farmer and agriculture journalist involved with the event.

In 2016, organizers announced a record attendance of more than 20,000 people.

Disease, digging out themes for 2017

Hursh noted the overriding theme at this year’s event will be disease control, following a year of hard-learned lessons.

“We had a very wet year. We had serious disease issues in pulse crops, particularly lentils,” he said.

The farmer also reflected on last summer’s historic crop haul in Saskatchewan – that fizzled for many when a heavy dumping of snow covered fields early in October. 

“A long and difficult harvest affected many regions,” he said. “In total, only about five per cent of the crop remains out according to estimates from Saskatchewan Agriculture.”

Hursh noted parts of the province saw higher percentages of crop impacted by the weather. West-central Saskatchewan, around Kindersley, got hit the hardest due to an early blanketing of snow at the beginning of October.

“Fortunately, most of it came off, but there’s still going to be some that has to be cleaned off in the spring,” he said.

A full schedule of events and additional Crop Production Week information is available online.