Even the recent snowfall has been too little to boost soil moisture levels in Saskatchewan’s grain belt, which is causing major concern for growers as we head into the 2021 growing season. Grain farmers in the region have seen their soils become drier over recent years; and without more precipitation, 2021 may turn out to be a difficult year for producing high-yielding, healthy crops.
With spring seeding expected to begin in the next few weeks, grain farmers in the province are hoping to see enough precipitation to increase subsoil moisture levels, which will be critical for plant development should the dry conditions persist into the summer months.
Along with a lack of precipitation, soil erosion also continues to be a problem in the prairies. As the soils become more dehydrated, they become more susceptible to erosion by wind and water, making the situation even worse for growers. The economic impact that stems from these soil conditions is also on the minds of those who work this land.
With the adaptation of soil conservation practices like reduced-till to zero-till, intercropping, cover crop usage and crop rotation, some farmers in the province have seen improvements in soil preservation, including less erosion and higher moisture levels. By disrupting the soil less and increasing organic matter content, soils can better retain water, improve aggregate stability, promote microbial health, sequester carbon, and restore marginal areas with native species, among other benefits.
Some farmers have even started using practices like soil landscape restoration, which takes soil accumulated through erosion and moving it back to higher ground to rebuild the soil depth, but this is only a temporary remedy without introducing other soil conservation practices to prevent it from happening again.
There has been a growing shift in the agriculture industry in recent years towards regenerative practices that strive to improve the conditions of the soils and to restore them to a more natural state and make them more capable of withstanding natural elements that can have a detrimental impact to crop production and ultimately, revenue.