Alberta Harvest Gains Ground, but Remains Well Behind Normal

Warm weather helped farmers make meaningful harvest progress during the final week of August, but Alberta’s crop remains considerably later than normal—especially across northern regions.

As of Sept. 1, 10.2 per cent of the province’s major crops had been harvested, according to the latest Alberta Crop Report. That represents a six-percentage-point increase from the previous week, but progress remains well below the five-year average of 23 per cent and the 10-year average of 17.3 per cent.

The numbers show two very different harvests developing across Alberta. Farmers in the South and Central regions made substantial progress during the week, while combining remained in its earliest stages throughout much of northern Alberta.

Harvest in the South reached 27 per cent complete, an increase of nearly 12 percentage points from Aug. 25. Central Alberta advanced even more sharply, climbing from 2.3 per cent to 11.8 per cent complete.

Farther north, progress remained limited. Just 2.4 per cent of major crops had been harvested in the North East, one per cent in the North West and 3.3 per cent in the Peace Region.

Recent rain continued to delay fieldwork in parts of the North West and Peace, although warm, dry conditions allowed some farmers to begin swathing and combining.