The wet weather that gave farmers so much trouble during harvest time last year, could still cause them problems this spring.

According to insurer's Alberta Farmers had to leave 1 million acres of unharvested crops in the field last year, after one of wettest falls in Alberta's history.

Many Central Alberta Farmers fell victim to mother nature last year, and will have to deal with their unharvested crops before they can move on and start seeding this years crop.

Crop Specialist Harry Brook with Alberta Agriculture says farmers have a few options, after first talking to your insurance broker.

"It's still not disastrous, and it still has value, so it's important to take it off. So your alternatives are to dry it, or wait for it to dry then take it off for feed purposes. Other things you could do is just say it's a terrible mess, and plow it all down."

Brook says last year was very wet which fosters disease development, so crop roation is even more important.

"It could infect the crop, and then it's on the crop residue that they will form spores and harm this years crop. So if you were to put the same crop in that field again this year, and we have even close to good moisture conditions in the spring and early summer, you could actually have a catastrophic disease issue."

Brook says any Canola left in the field may cause a lot of problems for producers this year, with huge seed loads now on the ground that could germinate and dominate the field.

The last thing he suggests is burning the old crop.

 

For more details and information on your options, you can visit Alberta Agricultures website. http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/All/com16303