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By Nigel Maxwell

Wet summer

Haying operations in central Sask. dampened by rainfall

Jul 16, 2020 | 2:18 PM

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask – Thanks to mother nature, farmers in the Prince Albert and Shellbrook areas are playing catch up.

Rain in the region has delayed haying operations. According to this week’s Crop Report from the Ministry of Agriculture, seven per cent of the hay crop is cut in the northeast region and one per cent is balled or put into silage. Richard Wilson farms south of Prince Albert and explains the issue is not with the quality of the hay crop.

“There’s a really good cut coming. The only thing is it’s going to be a challenge getting it wrapped up into bails because you need three or four days of nice drying weather,” he said.

The Lakeland area north of Prince Albert received the highest amount of rain in the northeast region last week with 78 mm. The Birch Hills area received 14.8 mm, and the Spruce Home and Arborfield areas received 20 mm.

“Everybody has been kind of holding off. Some guys have cut some, we’ve cut a little, and we got one rain on it but we are hoping the rain will hold off for another day and we’ll be able to get it bailed up,” Wilson said.

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A wet field north of Prince Albert. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

According to Environment Canada’s forecast, there is a 30 per cent of rain Friday and Saturday, as well as a 60 per cent chance of rain on Sunday.

The majority of crop damage reported this week from the Ministry of Agriculture was from localized flooding, standing water in low spots, wind and in some cases hail.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell