The Southeast is starting harvest early this year due to the lack of rain.
"We're probably at least a week maybe even a little bit more earlier than we would typically be, most of that is contributed to the hot and dry conditions that we've had and crops are ripening very quickly because of that," explained Shanon Friesen the Cropping Management Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
"So provincially less than 1% of the crops have now been combined and slightly more than 1% is ready to straight cut. Overall 47% of the fall rye, 6% of the winter wheat, 2% of the lentils and 1% of the field peas are now in the bin. Most of the harvest progress is coming from the South part of the province, the Southeast has less than 1% in the bin and the Southwest has 1%."
Yields are below average for the South.
"Yields range anywhere from average to well below average all depending where you are, how much moisture you've had and when you were able to seed. For many producers in the South along the United States border west of Estevan basically all the way to Alberta yields have been well below average, for other areas they are reporting slightly below to average," she shared.
With the hot and dry conditions topsoil moisture has been drying up.
"The topsoil moisture is worsening with the hot weather and lack of rain. We did get some rainfall over the last couple of days in some areas, that should help us out but provincially topsoil in cropland is rated as 1% surplus, 29% adequate, 41% short and 29% very short."
"On hay land and pasture it is 1% surplus, 23% adequate, 40% short and 36% very short," stated Shanon.
"Pasture conditions are currently rated as 1% excellent, 18% good, 32% fair, 31% poor and 18% very poor. Most of the poor areas are coming from the South, where the Northwest is actually in excellent shape as they've had much more moisture than the rest of us."
Crop damage can be related to a number of things such as the weather.
"Now that we've had some cooler conditions this may benefit us certainly as we get more rain that could help some of those crops that were later seeded for them to actually fill and of course to replenish the topsoil. Unfortunately a lot of this recent rain will be too late for much of the crop in the South as most of them have matured to the point where moisture is no longer needed."
Crops have been damaged anywhere from the lack of rain, the very hot temperatures, we've had some hail damage out there, some localized flooding in more areas in the North, some strong winds and we've had many reports of insects such as Aphids, Diamondback moths and Grasshoppers," she expressed.
Source : Discoverestevan