It appears that frost left its mark this week on some fields in southeastern Manitoba.

Marc Hutlet of Marc Hutlet Seeds says he has been hearing reports of the temperature dipping to -2 degrees in parts, with some areas even reaching -3 degrees for a brief period. The end result is that some canola fields are now suffering and will likely be reseeded.

"Some of those canola plants did receive some tissue damage and in fact some seedlings you can tell already that they are not going to make it," he says.

For the plants that received tissue damage, Hutlet says it takes two to three days to assess whether the growing point in the middle is still viable and active and will continue to grow.

"We reached out to all our canola growers yesterday and the overall sentiment seems to be fairly positive and they are confident that the existing stand will be okay," he says. "But there will be a bit of reseeding that will go on."

Yet, Hutlet says there are a few factors that worked in their favour. First of all, he says about 50 per cent of the early seeded canola had not emerged yet, by the time of the frost. Secondly, Hutlet says the cool weather during the day on Wednesday was also a big help.

"We did not reach ten Celsius, and so that plant is not very actively growing," he explains. "And therefore, was kind of dormant and that I think was a big saving grace for it also in the overall picture."

As for some of the other crops, Hutlet says corn is the least worrisome. He notes as long as it is not in that four to five leaf stage where the corn is growing out of the ground. Hutlet says most corn is only in the one to two leaf stage, which means that if there is frost damage, it will immediately start over.

"So that will be fine, no problem," he says. "There is a lot of fields that did get burn on some leaves but I don't know of any that really have to start over, so that was positive."

When it comes to soybeans, Hutlet says those fields can handle as low as -1.5 degrees. He notes a lot of them are in that VE stage, where they are emerging, which is good news. Hutlet says he does not expect too many soybean fields will be reseeded.

And, as for sunflowers, Hutlet says they are extremely hardy and he would be shocked if there was any reseeding.

Meanwhile, Hutlet says we received some very timely rains over the long weekend, noting some of the late seeded crops were in dire need.