"It's been a trying spring to say the least."

That is how the owner of Marc Hutlet Seeds at Ste. Anne is summing up the spring of 2022. Marc Hutlet says when the weather kept pushing back the start of seeding, producers were forced to switch their intentions to Plan B and even Plan C. He notes a lot of last minute decisions were made because producers just hit whichever field was dry enough, changing their crop rotations. 

For example, Hutlet says they have changed out thousands of bags of corn from initial intentions of seeding a specific hybrid with a certain maturity and then geared down the days to maturity according to what day it is on the calendar. He suspects corn and soybean acres could be down 15 to 20 per cent in the southeast this year, noting instead there will be a lot of canola and wheat planted.

Not only has it been a difficult spring because of the late start to seeding, but Hutlet says they are now hearing reports that some of the earlier seeded canola is being ravaged by flea beetles. For those fields that received three inches of rain, Hutlet says this created a crust and as a result, emergence is not very good.

"We're not even finished seeding and we already have some issues like that going on," he says. 

Hutlet guesses that about 75 per cent of the seeding is now wrapped up in southeastern Manitoba. He says if the rain can stay away until Monday, that should be just long enough for the rest of seeding to be finished. 

On a positive note, Hutlet says there looks to be a phenomenal alfalfa crop this year and adds the fall rye is the best looking in many years.

Meanwhile, Paul Sabourin has been a grain farmer in the St. Jean area for decades and says, this year has been very challenging. Over 90 per cent of his land was under water this spring. 

"The likes of which I've never seen before," he shares. "This has pushed the seeding date to the brink of meeting deadlines."

Now that the fields are drying, Sabourin says they are able to get onto them.

"As the water recedes, we're right there, and our lakefront property is diminishing a little bit," he notes. "We're just doing what we can. Honestly, it's a weird scenario because we first have to pick up debris which is kind of a challenging process before we put the seeds in the ground."  

As to when they will be done seeding, Sabourin says it may be the end of June or even July. 

"So yeah, it's just a frustrating process this year, that's all," he admits.

Sabourin says right now they need the weather to give them a break.  

"The weather's been kind of the enemy with the flood and the water from the States (USA)," he notes. "e've never seen anything like it and hope we never see it (again)."

Sabourin says it is terribly unusual to see such devastating flooding so late in spring.