Moderate drought usually carries with it short-term effects, less than six months.
We rely on a carry over from year to year to grow our crops.
The only way to carry moisture from year to year is in our soil.
The lighter the soil the hard time it has in retaining moisture.
In figure 3 we can see that a wheat crop on average needs over 400mm of moisture throughout its growing season, and it requires the most amount of moisture at the heading and flowering stages.
So where does this moisture come from?
There is moisture there, enough to get our crops rolling but we do not have the wealth like we did last season when a good portion of farmers say excellent crops despite our lack of rain.
So, what it comes down to are timely rains.
This year Westman will need to experience rains throughout the growing season in order to see our crops flourish.
Expect to see some rain from May 24th -26th in Westman around that 10mm will be common throughout the area.