Wild oats and lambs quarters are beginning to appear in fields across the province, a sure sign that producers should be focusing on herbicides.

Recent rains have delayed the timeline for spraying, and with sunny weather in the forecast, weeds will be developing rapidly. Provincial weed specialist Jeanette Gaultier says it's important for producers to be scouting fields.

"We might see a shift in some weed species, depending on how wet the fields were and how long they were wet," Gaultier says. "We might start seeing, in some fields, some species like the dock species — curled dock — some of the smartweeds and barnyard grass — it really loves wet and warm."

Fields are still quite wet for equipment, so Gaultier says producers will have to decide "what kind of ugly field they want," meaning they will have to decide between field and weed conditions.

"They'll have to definitely check their weed and crop staging," she says, "if they can wait a little bit so the fields do dry out a bit, I mean the weeds are going to grow, but if they still are within the staging for the herbicide they plan on using, it's definitely okay to wait a bit."

Gaultier says she is aware there are some producers that haven't been able to wait out the weeds as fields dry. In that case, she says farmers may get earlier weed control, but they risk leaving ruts, which could come back to haunt them come harvest time.