Farmers making progress in seeding operations

Seeding progress in Saskatchewan increased more than twofold in the past week, but it’s still below the five-year average.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, seeding was at 18 per cent as of Monday, up from seven per cent the previous week. The average from 2015 to ’19 at this time of year was 25 per cent.

The southwest region led the province with 39 per cent of the crop seeded. The southeast was next at 23 per cent, followed by the west-central region (14 per cent), northwest (eight per cent), east-central (seven per cent) and northeast (three per cent).

Rain and snow delayed work in some areas of the province, with the Prince Albert area getting 28 millimetres of rain. Parts of the northern and eastern regions of the province also received snow.

The ministry noted farmers in some areas of the province also were continuing to combine 2019 crops that were left in the fields due to the weather during harvest.