A farmer north of Randolph says they are about three days away from the potential start of seeding.

Jason Rempel of Rempelco Acres says this year they will be growing about 2,000 acres of corn, soybeans, canola, wheat and barley. Rempel says they are getting very close to putting seed in the ground.

"These last couple of days of warm weather have really helped warm up the soil and dry things out," he notes. "(We) might even try just doing a little bit of light harrowing on some land (Saturday), just to see exactly what the conditions are like."

Rempel says the soil temperature is sitting around six or seven degrees in a lot of spots and probably even warmer in areas with lighter soil. He notes a lot of cereals could handle those temperatures already, though they would want things a little warmer before seeding soybeans. 

Environment Canada continues to call for rain on Sunday and Monday. Rempel says for the most part his land contains a heavier clay soil, and he still has some standing water in some areas. He notes any rain this weekend would not be beneficial to his operation.

"Going into winter we were fully saturated in soil moisture in most locations," reports Rempel. "The subsurface soil moisture is very high, so the rain doesn't benefit us in any way at this point. It would be fine to skip this precipitation event."

With a dry weekend, Rempel says they would probably begin seeding on Monday. He notes a start date of May 8th is ahead of last year but about one week later than their historical average. Having said that, Rempel doubts this delay will have a big hit on their yield potential.

Meanwhile, Rempel would like to remind all motorists that there will be a lot of farming equipment on the roads over the next few weeks. He notes farmers are being mindful to move machinery around safely, but he urges motorists to slow down when approaching these machines. 

"We're trying to just get safely to our fields and we're over to the side of the road as far as we can," he explains. "But it's some big equipment, so just slow down around that agricultural equipment and everybody can stay safe this spring."