By Alice McFarlane

Manitoba farmers starting spring seeding

May 2, 2025 | 9:59 AM

Manitoba Agriculture has released its first crop report for 2025. Spring planting is registered at three per cent complete just two points ahead of the five-year average.

There have been small amounts of peas, spring wheat and oats primarily seeded in the central, eastern and Interlake regions of the province. No oilseed crops have been planted to date.

James Frey is an Applied Research Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, based in Roblin, Man. He said it’s not surprising it’s been a slow start considering the moisture conditions.

“We’ve had a lot of snow over the winter and over the last week or so with a late snow with parts of the region receiving up to 10 inches of snow or even more according to some accounts,” he said. “This translates to about an inch and three-quarters of water so that has slowed things down a bit.”

Frey said first assessments are good for how winter wheat and fall rye crops fared over the winter.

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“There’s enough heat in some areas where we’re starting to see plants breaking dormancy and beginning to gain a bit more green colour and to grow actively, but winter kill assessments for many fields are still to come. So, it’s a little bit of a wild card there.”

Frey said there are very preliminary forecasts of what can be expected for main crops this year.

“It’s anticipated that there’s going to be 3.22 million acres of wheat, which is up a bit from last year. Canola down a little bit to 3.12 million acres compared to 3.34 in 2024 and soybean acres up a little bit. That’s probably not a surprise with what we know about some of those challenges for the canola market in the last couple of months,” he said. “Overall, if you do the math, those percentage changes are fairly minimal, so I think farmers are figuring things out.”

Frey added pastures in northwest Manitoba have been slow to develop this spring.

“You do see animals out on a limited number of pastures, although growth really hasn’t begun. The pasture plants are going to be following that same pattern as the winter cereal plants and just beginning to grow actively. If animals are out on pasture, they’re likely being fed supplemental feed at this point in time.”

Frey said livestock producers are busy checking and fixing fences, as they prepare to release their cattle into pastures.

“I assume there’s probably some folks who are maybe just wrapping up calving and life never stops when you have livestock, that’s for sure.”

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com