SARDA Ag Research News
Year of No Water season rainfall, we Actual precipitation saw the quality of reported at Ballater Weather our plots go down. Station from May 1 to Sept. This was evidenced in our plots as plant 30, 2021 was 179.3 mm counts completed in (7.06 inches) Just 64% June showed fewer of the long term average plants than expected. 278.8 mm (11.0 inches) While this is not catastrophic as many Actual precipitation reported crops have the ability at Teepee Creek Weather to stool out and Station from May 1 to Sept. produce great crops, 30, 2021 was 128.8 mm moisture is required. (5.07 inches) Just 45% By the time we of the long term average received a substantial 285.7 mm (11.24 inches) rain it was too late. The result of this late rain was that many crops stooled which meant second and third flushes of growth. When this happens, it becomes challenging to manage the crops for harvest and the quality of the crop decreases. Our plot management faced the same challenges.
By Shelleen Gerbig, Extension Coordinator, SARDA Ag Research
2021 can be labeled the “Year of No Water”. Drought affected all our plots this year. As a result, trials did not show the expected results. While moisture was good during seeding, we found that the drought reduced plant stands throughout the season. Some trials were cancelled and others were taken to completion on the off chance that the data collected would be useable. It’s no wonder, crops were so poor. The Ballater Weather Station (nearest weather station to our plots in Smoky River) reported that we received 64% of our average growing season precipitation. The Teepee Creek weather station (nearest weather station to the plots in Greenview) was worse, reporting only 45% of the average growing season precipitation. In addition to the lack of precipitation, both stations reported a week straight of temperatures above 300C with a high of 400C, a heat extreme that is nearly unheard of in the Peace Region. Drought affects many aspects of crop production and our research plots are no different. In 2021, emergence of most crops was great but with the lack of growing
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