Warm sunny weather has helped southeast area farmers make further progress in their harvest activities, as well as in preparation work for next spring. According to Sask.
Warm sunny weather has helped southeast area farmers make further progress in their harvest activities, as well as in preparation work for next spring.
According to Sask. Agriculture's weekly crop report, harvest in the southeast region is 92 per cent combined, with four per cent swathed or ready to be straight-cut. Provincially, harvest is 91 per cent combined, with seven per cent swathed or ready to straight-cut, which is well ahead of the five-year average for harvest progress.
Some rain showers slowed activities down briefly, with 13 mm received in the Stoughton area, and 22 mm in the Weyburn and Ceylon areas.
Broken down by crop districts, 1A has 97 per cent of the crop combined; 1B is 89 per cent complete; 2A is 92 per cent done, 2B is 90 per cent complete, and 3ASE has 93 per cent combined.
"Harvest in the Tribune area is nearing completion, with some of the late crops still left to do, some canola and traditionally-late crops like flax," said David Pattyson, a Tribune-area farmer.
"A lot of producers have been quite busy out in the fields, on the acres that were unseeded in the spring," he added. "There's more winter wheat seeded this year than I've ever seen before."
Pattyson said there are a couple factors in the increase of winter wheat acres in the Tribune area, noting first of all that many acres were not able to be seeded in the spring, "so the hope is to get something growing onto there; winter wheat should do well."
Another factor is often producers are too busy with harvest to be able to seed winter wheat, but this year with reduced acres seeded, many farmers don't have very much to harvest so they were able to seed some of those unused acres to winter wheat.
Ironically, for Pattyson, he is traditionally a grower of winter wheat, but due to the crop rotations on his land he felt he was unable to seed winter wheat this year.
"The big task for a lot of people is getting the fields prepared for next spring. It was August before some people were able to get into their fields due to excess moisture, so there's a lot of weeds to deal with," said Pattyson.
For Fillmore-area producer Russ Leguee, field work is a major part of his current activity, with harvest mostly done in his area, with some canola left to be done.
"We've got some nice weather and it's dried up a lot, so I have to get some field preparation done," he said, noting most producers are out in their fields trying to get their weeds under control or getting their fields ready for the spring.
Leguee said quite a few farmers have planted winter wheat, including himself, and he's now concentrating on catching up on the field work before winter arrives.
He said excess water continues to be a factor he has to work around in some fields, and estimates about 12 per cent of his total acreage will be lost to production next year due to standing water.
"It'll take years to get through that; a lot of the water just has to evaporate, and there's not a lot we can do about it," said Leguee.
"It's something we've always lived with, although this is the worst I've ever seen in the 51 years I've lived here," he added, noting they are hoping it won't be a heavy winter for snow so as to allow some of the land to dry out in the spring.
According to the crop report, yields varied greatly in the southeast region, depending on spring moisture. Topsoil moisture on crop land is rated as surplus on five per cent, adequate on 79 per cent, short on 13 per cent and very short on three per cent. On hay land and pasture, topsoil moisture is rated as surplus on three per cent, adequate for 75 per cent of the land, short on 20 per cent and very short on two per cent.
For cattle producers, 99 per cent have indicated they have adequate water supply for their livestock, and pasture conditions are rated as seven per cent excellent, 78 per cent good, 14 per cent as fair, and one per cent is poor.
