West-central region finally receives some rain; farmers ready to start spraying

Some Saskatchewan farmers finally have a weight off of their shoulders: Rain hit the west-central portion of the province Monday night.

Kevin Krchov farms 20 miles north of Rosetown and two miles east. He says crops will start to look better now that the rain has come.

“It was nice out. We had caught a shower the day before but we hadn’t had any rain in a year,” said Krchov.

Krchov said it started to rain while he was running errands in Rosetown at 4 p.m. He drove to his quarter and was pleased to see the rain hit his crop.

It rained until 11 p.m. Monday.

This is the first good shot of rain that has gone through this spring. After wrapping up seeding at the end of May, Krchov needs rain to get the crops in better condition.

“They looked real terrible,” he said. “They looked real crappy because there was not much moisture and not much sunlight so the crops here are pretty late and they don’t look very good.”

The Ministry of Agriculture’s crop report last Thursday said seeding was almost completed in the west-central and southeastern regions of the province.

While farmers have been pleading for a bit of rain, what fell Monday and what could be coming this week may be more than the farmers need.

Across the province, the weather forecast predicts a good dump of rain for days to come. After not getting enough, farmers could have a problem of too much rain on their hands.

Krchov is happy with what precipitation farmers in the area got Monday.

“This 3.5 inches was probably perfect,” he said. “There was water laying in my garden (Monday) night and when I got up (Tuesday) morning, it had already disappeared.”

Even though the sloughs and ditches are full, spraying should finally be off and running when the rain dries.

“My chemical company and my fuel company may be happy that it rained too,” Krchov said with a laugh.