Farmers in southern Saskatchewan are becoming concerned about the lack of snow so far this winter.

That was one of the topics discussed on Tuesday at an informational meeting hosted by McDougall Acres Ltd. at the Cosmo Centre. About 150 farmers attended the meeting, which was a chance to connect producers and customers in addition to providing information on relevant topics. The event attracted producers from across the province and into Montana.

Ken McDougall described the mood in the room as cautiously optimistic heading into the 2024 growing season.

"Markets are somewhat flat but uncertain," he said. "This area has been blessed with some moisture. Some of the areas that are represented here today have definitely not been blessed with much moisture for the last two to five years. As farmers, we're totally dependent on Mother Nature and we have to be optimistic at this time of year thinking that we're going to get the moisture and we just have to build a plan to build our farms."

He noted the lack of snow on the ground is a big concern.

"Some of the moisture that we've had here at Moose Jaw this fall, with a couple snowfall events and a rain event, has been helpful and most of the province has had some of that but it's not nearly enough. We all need a massive recharge to allow us to seed our crop into some moisture next spring. We still have lots of time, we've never lost a crop in December but we are all quite anxious wondering what's going to happen for moisture. We're very dependent of course."

Vaughn Crone farms about 11,000 acres just north of Moose Jaw, growing cereals, oilseeds, and pulses. He says farmers in the region are hoping for a white Christmas.

"The snow and what we had through the fall after harvest was over and in October and the little bit in November was definitely welcome but as you can see, it's melted and it's gone. We're in a huge deficit position. We're not too worried yet because we haven't seeded next spring's crop and it hasn't started growing but we're going to need some timely stuff to happen in the spring to help get a crop up and running."

In terms of what's going in the ground in the spring, Crone says he's fairly entrenched in his rotation schedule.

"At times, we have some acres that we can swap around before spring if market conditions think that there's better profit potential in certain things," he explained. "There are some swing acres but for the most part we try to split everything a third, a third, a third and as we continue to work on getting some of our land into a four-year rotation to help the pulse situation a little better. We kind of play with some of that. We're just trying to manage rotation for disease risk as well as profitability."

McDougall says the meeting was a chance for farmers to think about alternatives to what they normally do or maybe consider a new variety of durum, lentils, or chickpeas that they haven't thought of before.

"Most farmers in Moose Jaw have a fairly set rotation but we're here to make sure they know all their options," he added.

Producers also had a chance to learn about insect and disease issues from some of the top experts in the field.

"We've got sawfly that has been a major problem in the province and it's a cyclical bug that causes everybody grief," remarked McDougall. "We just had an awesome presentation by Michelle Hubbard in regards to root rot, aphanomyces, which is everywhere. She showed us the map that we're all affected by it."

Crone said as a farmer, he's naturally optimistic.

"You don't go out and put a seed in the ground and think that it's not going to grow and become profitable to run your business. For the most part, I think everybody's optimistic. Prices are fairly stable. They've backed off from what was incredible prices a year ago, but still allow us with the right precipitation and weather conditions to make a profit."

McDougall Acres Ltd. is a fourth generation century farm and seed producer that buys chickpeas for domestic use and export to Europe. The company also buys a variety of pulses to supply to the pet food ingredient supply industry.

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