Wet weather means more delays in harvest
Only 82% of crops in; average for this time of year is 99%
It’s been another dismal week for harvest in the province with progress only inching up another one per cent, according to the provincial crop report. Harvest in Saskatchewan sits at 82 per cent complete.
“This week again was another very, very slow week for our producers trying to get the crop in,” said Daphne Cruise, crop management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture in Moose Jaw.
In the southeast corner of the province, there is 90 per cent of the harvest in the bin. There is 85 per cent of the crop combined in the southwest. Eighty per cent is done in the east-central and northwest regions. And 73 per cent in the west-central and 82 per cent in the northeast regions is combined.
The five-year average for this time of year is 99 per cent. The last time Saskatchewan saw anything close to this year’s lack of progress was in 2009 when there was only 79 per cent of the crop in the bin.
“Normally, this is not what we have to experience. But some producers did get out into the field late last week in the south before the rain came on Sunday,” Cruise said.
The west-central area of the province around Rosetown, Kindersley and Biggar is the most behind in the province for harvest.
“It’s just been the type of the year they’ve had and the type of harvest that just keeps setting them back when it comes to getting into the combine,” Cruise said.
The crops have been left sitting in the fields over the past month as the rain has come and gone, which has led to yield loss. Cruise said there were reports of bleaching and sprouting happening in the standing and swathed crops.
“We also start to see the straw break down and stems break down, so that’s where we start seeing that lodging of the crop starting. Basically, they can’t hold it up anymore. It’s well past the point of mature and so it’s starting to basically decompose a bit in the field,” she said.
Cattle producers have been able to move their herds home from the pasture, however, wet field conditions have stopped them from being able to haul bales home.
“There were a few comments that they may not be able to get some of the bales hauled home until the ground freezes. But there again, we’ve had no indications of any kind of there not being enough feed at the yard for cattle,” Cruise said.
Producers are hoping colder temperatures going into November will see the ground freeze up, allowing them to get back in the fields to finish harvest and haul bales home, Cruise said.
This was the last weekly crop report of the year. There will be a full-year crop report released at the end of November.