Second hay cut underway: Manitoba Crop Report

Aug 18, 2022

Manitoba Agriculture's latest crop report says harvest has started in winter wheat and fall rye, with a good portion of those crops already combined.

Reported yields are average for both crops.

Crop condition looks good to very good in most parts of the province.

Pea harvest has begun in the northwest region, and widespread harvest is expected to begin for spring cereals in about two weeks, with some early barley coming off in the past few days.

Insect concerns have popped up in localized spots across Manitoba, lygus bugs in the Swan Valley, and soybean aphids, cereal aphids, and grasshoppers throughout Manitoba.

Soybean aphids have reached economic thresholds in some crops, while many populations remain below thresholds but should be monitored closely.

Dairy farms have completed second-cut hay, while beef cattle producers are just starting or continuing a second cut as weather allows.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.