(file photo/farmnewsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Crop Report

North West region making progress with harvest

Sep 9, 2022 | 3:11 PM

Farmers in the North West region, including the Battlefords and Meadow Lake area, are making steady progress in getting their crop in the bin.

Linda Bomok, who grows soft spring wheat on 240 acres in the Richard area, east of North Battleford, said her harvest is moving along well.

“It’s looking good; I have about 120 acres [done].”

Bomok said the growing season has been promising this year, and her yields are strong.

“It’s a lot better than last year,” she said.

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Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture crops extension specialist, Matthew Struthers, said producers in the region are moving along well.

“It was a great week for the North West,” he said. “Lots of progress was made. We had nice hot dry week. That allowed for a lot of combines and swathers to get out there and make quick work of the crop.”

The North West has 28 per cent of the crop now in the bin overall, up from six per cent last week, and ahead of the five-year average of 15 per cent.

“That crop really matured quite quickly, after the last couple of hot dry weeks we’ve had up there,” Struthers said. “Those producers are finally able to get out and start to combine. That’s some pretty good momentum.”

Yields overall are also looking good for the region, thanks to timely rains this spring and summer.

Looking at the harvest progress, much of the winter cereals and pulses have come off the field, as well as some spring cereals that are ready. Some canola fields have also begun to be picked up as well. However, it’s still early to say when all the work will be done.

“That all depends on the weather,” Struthers said. “If it stays nice and warm, and dry, then there won’t be too many delays. But if we get some cooler rainy weather that can certainly delay things further.”

Harvest is expected to wrap up sometime in October in the North West.

One of the challenges producers in parts of the region are dealing with is crops that are a little damp or on the tough side. Rain in the past few weeks has kept the kernels’ moisture content higher, so even though the crops have been harvested they will still need to be dried down.

Another larger issue for farmers is that some winds this past week blew swaths around the fields, and shelled out a few of the standing crops.

“Hopefully, it wasn’t too extreme,” Struthers said. “Of course, in Saskatchewan, it’s windy all the time, so producers are trying to just harvest as quick as they can before any early-season snow might show up, or some rain or hail, or anything crazy like that.”

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW