Great progress for harvest made by producers all over province

Last week’s harvest conditions allowed producers all over the province to make great progress with their harvest operations. Forty-two per cent of the crop has been harvested across the province, up from 23 per cent last week and slightly ahead of the five-year average (2017-2021) of 40 per cent. An additional 20 per cent of the crop is ready to swath or straight-cut. Crops that were not ready for harvest have quickly ripened after a stretch of warm and dry days.

The southwest region continues to lead harvest operations with 83 per cent of the crop now combined. The west-central has 61 per cent of their crop harvested, the southeast 33 per cent, the northwest 28 per cent, the east-central 27 per cent and the northeast 21 per cent.

Winter cereals are very close to being completed with 96 per cent of winter wheat and 84 per cent of fall rye harvested. Ninety-one per cent of lentils and field peas, 70 per cent of durum, 52 per cent of barley, 40 per cent of spring wheat and 22 per cent of the canola crop has now been combined.

The current estimated averages of crop yields are 43 bushels per acre for hard red spring wheat, 30 bushels per acre for durum, 34 bushels per acre for canola, 34 bushels per acre for field peas and 1,174 pounds per acre for lentils. Crop yields in the southwest and west-central regions have been greatly affected by the extremely hot and dry conditions experienced during critical growing stages this season; yields are significantly lower in these areas than the provincial averages.