Agriculture

Drought and grasshoppers cutting yields.

Infected number rises to eight.

Prediction too optimistic amid drought?

Fierce competition in Kabuli chickpea market.

Producers were delayed in haying progress last week but are now over halfway through the first cut of hay for the year.

Although the rain slowed seeding earlier in the season, many producers are hoping it will return to prevent crop conditions from regressing.

Trace amounts of rain were recorded within the west-central region. Soil moisture levels further diminished with hot and dry conditions.

The majority of crops in the northeast are ahead of normal stages of development, with the most advanced being fall cereals at 70 per cent.

Producers have made great haying progress this week. Fifty per cent of the first cut of hay has been baled or silaged.