Province’s harvest 60% complete
Several days of dry, windy weather have allowed producers to make significant harvest progress this past week, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly crop report.
“We had about a four or five-day run there where conditions were quite ideal to get a large portion of the crop in the bin,’’ said Daphne Cruise, crop management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture in Moose Jaw. “Right now, we’re sitting at 60 per cent of the crop combined. This is up from 38 per cent last week, so we’re almost right at our five-year average of 62 per cent combined.’’
Harvest is furthest advanced in the southeast, where producers have 73 per cent of the crop in the bin, while 63 per cent of the crop is combined in the southwest, followed by 57 per cent in the westcentral region, 54 per cent in the northeast, 53 per cent in the eastcentral region and 48 per cent in the northwest.
Of the total crop, 97 per cent of field peas, 85 per cent of lentils, 57 per cent of durum, 56 per cent of spring wheat, 47 per cent of canola and 15 per cent of flax have been combined.
The majority of producers had good harvest weather for most of the week, but showers toward the end of the week stalled some field operations for a day or two, particularly in the central and northern regions.
Precipitation ranged from nil to 89 mm in the Tramping Lake area, while the Elfros area reported 18 mm, Rosthern and Unity 15 mm and Nipawin, Debden and Barthel 19 mm. Most other areas that reported rain received less than 12 mm for the week. And the forecast is for more rain over the weekend.
“With any kind of rain and weathering, there’s potential for the grade and the quality to go down, in terms of bleaching and sprouting of grains,’’ she said. “If we do get high winds and we have standing or swathed canola, we could see some swaths roll or shattering losses in the standing crops.’’
Strong winds blew some canola swaths around, while hail was reported in the Tantallon and Wynyard areas. Bleaching, sprouting, fusarium and earth tag are also causing grade loss.
While it’s the last thing farmers want this time of year, the rain will provide producers with a much-needed “breather” just past the halfway point of harvest, she added. “Next week’s forecast looks great, but it will definitely take a few days for producers to get back in the fields.”