Local farmers have been struggling to get a good crop this season.
"In many cases crops have been advancing quite rapidly, more in South parts of the province that have been lacking in moisture for a number of weeks a lot of those crops are permanently advancing," explained Shanon Friesen the Acting Cropping Management Specialist.
"They hay crop is not doing as well this year. We just really haven't had the rain that we need for the hay to grow. In many cases lots of producers have indicated that the hay stalks are much smaller than normal and are about a quarter to even half of what it would typically be. The hay land and the pasture top soil moisture is 49% short."
"If we do get some moisture things could improve for us, the hay land could actually grow and farmers may be able to get a second cut," she shared.
At the moment crops aren't looking as great as producers hope.
"Other sources of crop damage include hail, we have had some pretty good storms move through parts of the province for the last couple of weeks. We have had localized flooding, Saskatoon flooded as well as parts of the North that have been dealing with excess moisture for a number of months now. We have also had some strong winds again," stated Shanon.
" There are lots of insects out there, painted lady caterpillar in particular is an insect that we haven't seen in a number of years but with our increase in soybean acreages, we are are seeing some damage from that. There has also been reports of wheat midge, alfalfa weevils, diamondback moths and bertha armyworms. We are seeing more reports of insect this year than normal but in terms of disease, it is much less than what we have had in the past and most of that is due to the dry conditions and the warm conditions."
Source : Discoverestevan