(file photo/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

HARVEST PROGRESS

Harvest closer to wrapping up in North West region

Oct 2, 2022 | 5:25 PM

Farmers in the Battlefords and Meadow Lake area in the North West region are reporting steady progress for this year’s harvest.

The province said a total of 70 per cent of the crop has been harvested based on the most recent update, up from 63 per cent the prior week, and ahead of the five-year average of 44 per cent for this time of year.

Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Crops Extension Specialist Matthew Struthers said the weather has been ideal for producers to get plenty of their crop in the bin.

“There was very little rain, so lots of progress was made,” he said.

It’s estimated that harvest in the North West region will be done by about mid-October.

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As far as challenges go, the wind has been a bit of a concern in parts of the region.

“In Saskatchewan things are always windy,” Struthers said. “So there have been some swaths that have been blowing around, and standing crops shelled out or lodged.”

In the North West region, producers hope the rain holds off a little bit longer so they can finish their harvest work. If it remains dry it will help reduce the moisture content of the crops, so they will be easier to harvest.

Struthers said farmers are only a couple of weeks away from wrapping up if the weather holds out.

“If we get some really heavy rains or some really cool weather and heavy-duty mornings, that will push harvest back,” he said. “It will delay them a few days. So every producer up there, I’m sure, is looking for some nice good calm warm dry weather.”

Looking at the crop harvest progress, many producers have combined their cereals by now. They previously finished harvesting their pulses, mainly field peas in the North West region.

“There is lots of canola still left to go, and that will likely be the majority of the crop still left out there,” Struthers said.

While there were some reports of frost in parts of the province in the past couple of weeks, most of the crop was either already taken off or so mature that it did not have an impact.

Struthers mentioned there can also be some positives with a bit of frost.

“Actually right now a frost would help many producers, especially up in the North West and North East, where some of that crop is a little green,” he said. “For example, canola – the seed might be all mature but the stems are still quite green, and that’s very tough to send to the combines. So a frost would kill down that stem and dry it down, and then make it much easier for harvest.”

Overall, the expert said the North West region is making a good deal of progress this harvest season.

“They are sitting in the fourth spot out of sixth [in the province],” Struthers said. “So they are doing quite well. They are well ahead of their five-year average. They are getting the conditions they need, and the crop is coming off quite quickly. The North West got very lucky this year, with some timely rains. The crop that is coming off looks much better than some expected, so that is very nice to hear.”

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW