Recent rain enough for weeks, Rouleau-area farmer says

Nathan Bean says his growing season started great.

There was plenty of snowmelt to replenish the soil moisture on his Rouleau-area farm, where he grows cereals and chickpeas.

“Some of the best seeding conditions I’ve ever experienced were this year,” Bean said Monday. “Crops were coming up pretty nicely but not having a rain for month, (I) was getting pretty desperate for moisture until this last week.”

With the long dryspell, Bean said his canola crops, which were seeded in shallow soil, were coming up “patchy.” The recent rainfall could not have come sooner.

With more showers coming this past weekend, rainfall accumulation in Regina for June is up to 57 millimetres or 2.25 inches. However, that is still about half an inch below normal.

“We got about three inches in our area in a wide radius so that’s enough rain to keep us going for a while,” he said. “We’re good for three weeks (or) a month but then we’ll be looking for rain again.”

However, it’s definitely possible to have too much of a good thing, depending on the location in the province.

“In my area, you get too much and your crops start drowning out. But not too far south, they look for rain quite often. They could take a half-inch, an inch every week or two. It depends on what type of soil you have,” Bean said.