By Chantal Wagner

Rain last weekend welcomed by district farmers

Jun 11, 2020 | 1:13 PM

MEDICINE HAT, The rains we’ve had so far have the landscape in southeastern Alberta looking beautiful this year.

Nicole Neubauer with Neubauer Farms in Cypress County says the crops are remarkable in comparison to the sustained drought situation that we’ve experienced in the southeast corner of the province.

Those conditions lasted 2017-2019.

Neubauer says this year was even looking pretty dreadful at the beginning as it was very dry.

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But the two timely showers helped.

She says moisture in May aided germination.

And the rain over the first weekend of June helped re-moisturize the root zone of the growing plants.

Neubauer says now that the plant has adequate moisture stores, heat and sunshine will help get the process going.

“The extreme heat is always a bit of a concern but at this time of the year, those hot temperatures usually are fairly temporary. And so definitely the heat is what the plants are ready for and they’ll be in a position to take off and develop a canopy. And once the plant starts to create some of its own shade that can be quite beneficial as well because then the soil isn’t so exposed and it doesn’t tend to dry out and evaporate as quickly.”

But she says another shot of moisture will never be turned away.

As for pests, gophers are the biggest nemesis right now, and controlling the population is very important.

Neubauer says gophers are the biggest nemesis right now. She says they are invasive and crops can’t recover from the damage caused by rodents.

They will also be keeping an eye on canola crops as they are flowering and insects like to lay their eggs right in the flower.