Snow provides hope and little else for Saskatchewan producers

The snow arrived a couple of months later than many in Saskatchewan were expecting, and it's welcome news to farmers.

"It's nice to see the snow, but as far as farm land, we need rain in the spring," Elbow-area farmer Garry Book said.

"We need a lot more than this — it's dry."

With frigid temperatures outside, much of the conversation at the 2024 Western Canadian Crop Production Show at Prairieland Park was about the snow that fell earlier in the week, and its potential effect on crops come spring.

According to Environment Canada, many parts of central and southern Saskatchewan received between 10 and 15 centimetres of snow Tuesday and overnight into Wednesday morning. Outlook led the province with 23 cm, while Prince Albert received just three cm.

Many farmers mingling at the crop production show on Wednesday were happy to see snow arrive, but admitted it will do little to help crops unless much more snow or rain comes before seeding.

"We need a little bit more for spring moisture, but it will be what it will be," Glaslyn-area farmer Jim Lawrence said.

"There isn't enough to do a whole lot yet, but it will come."

With some parts of the province seeing multiple years of drought conditions, many producers are hoping for much more snow to help replenish soil moisture, but many farmers have already moved their attention to spring.

"If you get the rains at the right time, you get a crop," Lawrence said.

"I'd rather get stuck in sloughs than drive through them all," Book said.

Elliott Hildebrand, an agronomist consultant with Western Ag, was helping farmers make decisions in such an odd winter.

With little room for error given the lack of snowfall, Hildebrand uses the company's forecasting technology to give farmers the most information possible to get the best out of their crop. Doing so gives them a variety of scenarios to eliminate any surprises when seeding arrives.

"Going into spring, the yield potential you have with an inch of stored soil water versus four inches of stored water is a really large yield gap," Hildebrand said. "You can have your good scenario, you can have your probable scenarios — and it's really the gap between those two is where you're making your decisions."

Putting numbers on those decisions gives farmers an idea of what their costs will be early in 2024.

"It reframes it with some numbers and takes some of the guess work out of it," Hildebrand said. "Then it's a discussion on the numbers and the data, and it allows a clear decision to be made."

Given the dry conditions, Hildebrand suspects many farmers will ignore the "water hungry" crops like barley and oats, and will depend more on drought tolerant crops like wheat and canola.

"All depends on the value of the crop and the risks involved," he said.

No matter the predictions, farmers gathering at the Western Canadian Crop Production Show are pleased to see snow, but plenty more of it would make them truly happy.

"We could use some good wet years," Book said.