Completion of harvest in SE, fieldwork is underway

With the exception of chickpeas, all crops in the southeast area are reported to be at 96 per cent harvested, with another three per cent swathed or ready to straight-combine. Chickpeas are reported as 31 per cent harvested and the remaining 57 per cent is ready to combine.

The recent stretch of warm weather in October assisted southeast farmers to get most of the harvest completed. This percentage puts the southeast harvest operations for 2010 over the five-year provincial average (2005 to 2009) for this time of year at 92 per cent. It is also ahead of last year's harvest operations at this time, when farmers only had 77 per cent of the crop in the bin, with an additional 20 per cent swathed or ready to straight-combine.

Winter wheat and fall rye are complete at 100 per cent; mustard is at 99 per cent; barley, lentils, and peas are 98 per cent completed; spring wheat, durum and canola are 97 per cent completed; oats are at 95 per cent completed and canaryseed are at 91 per cent completed.

Topsoil moisture conditions on cropland are reported as 24 per cent surplus, 74 per cent adequate, and two per cent short. On hay land and pasture, topsoil moisture is rated as 12 per cent surplus, 81 per cent adequate and seven per cent short.

In the Tribune area, producer Glenn Walkeden noted that the hay and pasture lands are "drying up quick, we could almost use a rain." This is especially important to cattle producers as they start to wean their calves for the fall season.

Farmers are busy with fall work; finishing harvesting, baling straw, fixing fence, hauling bales and moving grain. "A lot of farmers should have their fall clean-up completed in the next week, as long as the nice weather remains," said Wayne Vilcu of the Griffin area.

He added that there are a few areas in the fields that are damp or have water holes because of the moisture received during spring and September.