Keep it Out of the Ditch Adequate

Moisture Levels for Seeding

By Elmer Heinrichs

Timi Ojo echoed that soil moisture levels appear to be adequate across most of Manitoba heading into spring seeding.

“I wouldn’t expect that we would have an issue with soil moisture this year,” said

Ojo, an agriculture meteorology specialist for Manitoba Agriculture. “In most places, soils were sitting at about 80 to 100 per cent of their available water holding capacity (AWC) from the fall.”

In a typical spring, even if there hadn’t been a lateseason storm and even if the ground hadn’t remained frozen longer than normal, the situation would still look pretty similar in terms of soil moisture, especially with AWC numbers where they currently.

Aquanty Forecasting Tools Kept Open for High-Water Spring Thaw

Farmers and land managers across the entire Assiniboine River Basin throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as Manitoba’s Pembina/Plum watersheds of the Red River Basin will have free and full access to Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association’s (MFGA) Aquanty Forecasting Tool during the 2023 spring thaw and run-off.

“We’ve really been focused on the delivery and implementation of the MFGA Aquanty Forecasting Tools in the Assiniboine River Basin and the Pembina Valley Watershed, and we believe they are ready to roll from a farmer or land manager perspective of understanding water resources on your land or coming down stream,” said Lawrence Knockaert, MFGA chair and dairy farmer from Bruxelles. “We have completed focus groups, accepted all feedback and we do have more work to do on what our go-forward looks like from a marketing and subscription point of view. But we also know that offering our forecasting tool to farmers at this time of the year is exactly what MFGA is all about. We are farmerled and are looking out for the best interests of our farmers and neighbours. It makes no sense to us to have the tool functional and it not being used by farmers during this time of year.”

Both of the MFGA Aquanty Forecasting Tools were funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. The Pembina Valley Watershed District (PVWD) is a key partner on the Pembina/Plum Forecasting Tool. Both forecasting tools are housed on a portal at MFGA.net that can be accessed via mfga.net/aquantyproject.

To help bridge the technology, there is a learning cen- tre on that page that will include a “Quick Start Guide” for visitors to the portal. A future training webinar is tentatively planned for the forecasting tool on April 27, 2023 that will be communicated soon across MFGA and PVWD channels.

Amanda Taylor at Aquanty, a Waterloo, Ontario based software company that has led the design of the tool says the forecasting tool will give producers both near-term (7-day) and longer term (32-day) forecasts for soil moisture, ground water and surface water conditions on or near the land that they manage.

Taylor said this tool should help them address the risks associated with water resources management under increasingly variable climate and weather conditions.

“The tool will help provide advance warning of both flood and drought conditions,” said Taylor. “In addition to the forecasting abilities, the tool will also allow producers to view recent satellite imagery of their land so that they can monitor all areas of their land in nearreal time without requiring on-site visits.”

According to Knockaert, MFGA will develop and utilize a user subscription approach in the future to look after maintenance and upkeep costs of running the forecasting tool. There will be no charges to any users until MFGA and Aquanty develop and implement that eventual system.

The intention will be to design a system that farmers are provided access through watershed districts, agriculture groups or other affiliations while professionals that may be working on or monitoring water and land usage via conservation organizations and rural municipalities will be able to subscribe to the tool for their own use.