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The Great Falls area of north central
Montana experienced
the 22 nd coolest year, and slightly below average precipitation
comparing over 100 years of records. The Spring was especially
cool with the last frost occurring on June 8 th compared to the
average date of May 13 th. This delayed development of crops
in the early Spring and a cooler than normal summer was fortunately
followed by a very warm and dry September that helped ripen crops
and facilitate harvest of winter wheat and spring cereal crops.
The Fargo area of south eastern North
Dakota experienced
a slightly cooler than normal year, although precipitation was
17% above normal values. The fall of 2009 was one of the warmest
on record that helped crops, especially corn, ripen. However,
rainfall was 2.7 in. above normal much coming in the late fall
and did not facilitate timely harvesting.
The Olds area of south central Alberta experienced cooler
than normal April and early May temperatures and the growing
season had lower than normal growing degree days until the warmer
than average September temperatures resulted in accumulated growing
degree days to equal and then exceed 30-year averages by the
middle of September (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Accumulated Growing Degree Days (5 oC base), Olds, Alberta,
30-April through to 30-September, 2009. (Source: Alberta Agriculture and Rural
Development).
The Brandon area of south west Manitoba experienced only
slightly less than normal precipitation – 331 mm compared
to 353 mm (13 in. compared to 14 in.), but the growing degree
days (5 oC) were 6% less than an average year during the growing
season.
When considering the whole NGP region – consisting
of the states of Montana and North Dakota, and the provinces
of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – the cropping year
2009 was especially cool in the spring and had below average
summer temperatures. If there had not been warmer than normal
temperatures in September and October, many of the region’s
crops would not have reached maturity. Some areas, especially
in the west from north-central Montana up into Alberta and the
west-central part of Saskatchewan, experienced very low spring
precipitation (bordering on severe drought) that resulted in
poor germination and emergence of crops, especially the small-seeded
oilseed crops including canola, mustard, and flax. When rains
came in late June, a problem of delayed germination and emergence
happened in many of these fields that caused uneven ripening
of crops in the fall and delayed harvest operations. Much of
the drought-affected areas received below average total growing
season precipitation. It was observed, however, that final crop
yields were amazingly good even though below average. These reasonable
yields were possible because of the lower moisture stress due
to the cooler summer temperatures. Had the normal hot summer
temperatures commonly experienced happened, many of the crops
would have failed due to moisture stress. Some sugar beet fields
in the region were not harvested because of delayed operations
due to warmer than normal September and early October temperatures,
followed by enough precipitation to hamper harvesting and then
crops being frozen in the field. A similar situation happened
for corn fields and the delayed harvest along with moist conditions
resulted in rotting of grain in the ears. Many of these sugar
beet and corn fields will be tilled under during spring field
operations. Adjustments will be needed for subsequent crops on
these fields as the nutrients usually removed in the harvested
parts of the crops remained in the field and will become available
as the crop residues decompose. Even though some areas had lower
than average yields, much of the NGP region had average to above
average crop yields and if it was an area that didn’t received
untimely rain at harvest the grain quality harvested was good
to excellent.
Now the big question is what will the cropping season of
2010 be like? Hopefully a more normal and warmer spring
season. Seasonal predictions for the NGP are that the temperatures
will be a bit warmer than normal and this will be a nice change
from the spring of 2009. Precipitation looks to be close to
normal amounts. Summer temperatures are expected to be higher
than average on the west side of the region, accompanied by
average precipitation. In most areas, residual N, P, and K
in soils seems to be lower than normal, and fertilizer rates
will need to be somewhat greater than normal to meet optimal
crop yield targets. Some spring soil sampling and testing is
advised on fields to help fine tune nutrient rates, especially
for N.
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