Farmers had favourable fall weather during harvest
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
Farmers in Saskatchewan are shutting off their combines for the year, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s final crop report of 2017.
99 per cent of crops have been harvested as of Oct. 23. That number is up from 82 per cent recorded at this time last year.
Only some flax, soybeans and sunflowers remain in the fields.
And crop yields appear to be on par with the province’s 10-year average.
“Average provincial yields at this time are reported as 43 bushels per acre for hard red spring wheat, 34 bushels per acre for canola, 18 bushels per acre for soybeans, 63 bushels per acre for barley, 746 lbs per acre for mustard and 1,369 lbs per acre for lentils,” the Crop Report said.
A few factors came together to enable farmers to have a good crop year.
“Harvest weather was favourable for much of the fall, allowing producers to pull off well-above average crop quality,” the report said. “There were also limited reports of diseases, such as fusarium head blight, impacting crop production this year. The majority of crops are being reported as falling within the top two quality grades.”
But there hasn’t been enough rain in the past few weeks, according to the crop report.
And if rain doesn’t fall soon, there could be problems next spring, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture.
“The majority of producers have indicated that the subsoil is very dry and that seeding conditions next spring will be impacted if moisture is not received,” the report said.