Seeding progress is being made in the province according to Manitoba Agriculture.

Livestock and Forage Specialist Shawn Cabak says provincial seeding progress was at around 62 per cent as of last Tuesday's report, which is slightly behind the five-year-average of 81 per cent. It should be noted that several of those springs were very dry, specifically 2018, 2019, 2021, which allowed for early seeding.

Cabak says we are ahead of last year (40 per cent), when the spring was incredibly wet. Locally, Portage la Prairie is sitting around 50 per cent complete, ranging from 35 to 75 per cent, depending on where you look.

"When we look at Lake Manitoba, it has that cooling effect in the spring when it's frozen, or even after the ice is gone, it's like a giant refrigerator sitting there cooling the land around it," says Cabak. "So, conditions are a little bit further behind closer to the lake, and then we have frost boils coming out of the ground, too, which impedes field work."

Last year, precipitation was around 230 to 290 per cent higher than usual, while this year, we're 50 to 60 per cent of normal precipitation. That has helped with getting out onto the field a little earlier.

On the livestock and forage side of things, hay and pasture is growing well, according to Cabak. He adds alfalfa and tame grasses are up to a foot tall, which is good for this time of year. Wild hay and native pastures are also growing well.

"Cattle are already being turned out to pasture, and some of them are being supplemented. We'd like to see at least that five to six inches of growth before we can allow full grazing to take place," says Cabak. "More cattle will be going out over the next seven to ten days, up until the end of May, when a lot of the cattle will be fully turned out to grazing."

A new crop report will be released tomorrow.