One quarter of the 2021 harvest gathered to start September

Southwest producers completed 28 per cent of the 2021 harvest to kick off September according to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Crop Report for the period August 31 to September 6.

Producers had long days in their combines during the warm, dry week at the start of September, jumping harvest totals from 47 per cent to 75 per cent. The Southwest is now well ahead of the five-year average of 55 per cent completed. In addition, another nine per cent of the crop has been swathed or is ready to straight cut.

“Crops coming off are in very poor quality overall with well below average yields reported.

This region struggled the worst throughout the drought and many crops did not have enough moisture to set or fill seed,” the Crop Report in the Southwest noted. “The rain from previous weeks is causing some bleaching issues in the durum while strong winds have blown swaths around and have shelled out some standing crops. There are indications that there will be less winter cereals seeded this fall than normal due to the dry field conditions.”

Topsoil moisture conditions are slowly deteriorating in the region now that is has been several weeks since a real substantial rainfall. After harvest is completed this region needs a large wide spread rain to replenish both the topsoil and subsoil moisture in fields and pastures. Cropland topsoil moisture is rated as 19 per cent adequate, 35 per cent short and 46 per cent very short. Hay and pasture land topsoil moisture is rated as 13 per cent adequate, 32 per cent short and 55 per cent very short.

Province wide, over half of the harvest was completed as of the September 9 Crop Report, with producers improving harvest totals from 36 per cent to 56 per cent during a busy week of field work on August 31 to September 6.

Provincially, estimated average crop yields sat at 27 bushels per acre for hard red spring wheat, 19 bushels per acre for durum, 38 bushels per acre for barley, 20 bushels per acre for canola, 21 bushels per acre for field peas and 817 pounds per acre for lentils. Crop yields were greatly affected by drought conditions during critical growing stages this season and yields are far lower in some areas than anticipated.