Recent rains have helped farmers grow a second hay crop and replenished parched pasture and croplands, but as far as crop quality and quantity are concerned, they came too late to make much difference, according to the weekly crop report from Saskatchewan Agriculture.
"We'll take the rain because maybe that will be it for the year, who knows?" said Shannon Friesen, cropping management specialist with the Agriculture Ministry in Moose Jaw. "But certainly it's not ideal for this time (of the growing season)," Friesen added.
Rainfall ranged from small amounts to well over four inches in some areas, greatly improving topsoil moisture conditions in much of the province, the report said Thursday. "A lot of that rain came at least a couple of weeks too late," Friesen said. "Unfortunately, everything's been set."
Provincially, topsoil moisture conditions on cropland are rated as seven per cent surplus, 62 per cent adequate, 25 per cent short and six per cent very short. Hay land and pasture topsoil moisture is rated as four per cent surplus, 50 per cent adequate, 36 per cent short and 10 per cent very short.
Crops are ripening quickly, and the majority remains in poor-to-good condition, the report said. "We're probably two or three weeks ahead of where we would be in a normal year and at least a month earlier than we were last year," Friesen said. "Crops have advanced and ripened very quickly this year."
Source : LeaderPost