Higher Temperatures and Limited Rain Across Saskatchewan Improves Crop Development

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports warmer temperatures, increased sunshine and limited precipitation over the past week helped to dry up fields, allowing crop development to catch up.Saskatchewan Agriculture released its crop report yesterday for the period from July 7th to July 13th.

Davidson Ugheoke, a crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says higher temperatures and reduced rainfall is allowing fields to dry up and the heat is speeding up crop growth.

Quote-Davidson Ugheoke-Saskatchewan Agriculture:

Last week we had some warmer temperatures, increased sunshine and of course some limited precipitation in some areas. This allowed the fields to dry and now allow crops to catch up. Producers made huge progress in terms of spraying and most of them began haying.

However, the high humidity did slow down some drying.Producers remain optimistic in terms of yield while monitoring for disease and pest and localized weather impacts.We did have some storm activity with the system that moved in, bringing varying amounts of moisture depending on where you are in the province.

Despite the relative warm weather and, with some areas drying up, the topsoil moisture still remains adequate.In terms of crop development, it varies considerably across the province due to differing environmental conditions but most of the crops are currently at normal stage.In terms of crop condition across the province, it also varies.

In some areas where there is moisture-induced related stress, we do have some poor conditions but those are in weather-impacted areas.

Ugheoke notes producers in the east-central region, the northeast region and the northwest region are reporting minor to moderate damage due to excess moisture and some hail and damage is reported as the result of gophers across the province.He says overall, pest pressure remains low but producers are monitoring fields for any changes and fungicides and insecticides are being applied to crops in areas where we have excess moisture and prolonged canopy humidity which creates favorable conditions for disease development.
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