Cereal Harvest Winding Down, Winter Wheat Seeding Underway

Manitoba's cereal harvest is coming to a close.

Mallorie Lewarne is an agronomy extension specialist with the Manitoba Crop Alliance.

"Cereal harvest is wrapping up across the province, however, it's ongoing in the western part of the province and it started up again this week after those recent rains that we had," she said. "I have seen some reports of quality differences between grain harvested before versus after the rain including a little bit of sprouting and some reduced test weight. Yield reports continue to be highly variable. Looking at anywhere from 30 to 60 bushels per acre on average."

Lewarne adds winter wheat seeding is underway.

"I have seen a few reports of a few farmers getting some winter wheat in the ground. Taking advantage of that recent moisture and some canola has come off fairly early, so that's the perfect crop to seed your winter wheat into," she said. "One of the biggest risks to winter wheat crops right now would be grasshopper feeding on young plant tissue. If grasshoppers are a concern, there's a couple management options. Farmers could delay planting until the end of the ideal seeding window or increase their seeding rate around field edges."