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By Alice McFarlane

Saskatchewan Crop Report 2022

Excellent wheat crop in Saskatchewan

Oct 6, 2022 | 3:17 PM

MELFORT, Sask.- Many Saskatchewan farmers will celebrate Thanksgiving at the dinner table and not in the combine.

Thanks to the excellent fall weather, roughly 90 per cent of the crop has been harvested. That is up from 81 per cent last week, and well ahead of the five-year average of 82 per cent.

Crops extension specialist Matt Struthers compiles the weekly report for the Ministry of Agriculture. He said the dry weather has helped.

“Very little rain across the province this past week,” Struthers said. “Some trace amounts here and there maybe a few millimeters.”

The exception was farmers in the southeast, east central, and northeast areas dealing with heavy fog and dew in the mornings that delayed work in the field at times until the afternoon, made for shorter days in the field. As a result, some of that grain was combined with higher amounts of moisture than normal.

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The relatively good combing conditions allowed for better crop quality as much was taken off dry. Struthers said wheat crop is grading quite high.

“We asked for the quality of hard red spring wheat this week and that was coming in at 75 per cent 1CW, 23 per cent 2CW and two per cent 3CW,” he said. “That’s very, very good to see especially when compared to the 10-year average which is 39 per cent 1CW, 35 per cent 2CW, 17 per cent 3CW, and nine per cent for feed so very good to see especially after a season where we did see a bit more moisture.”

As far as yields go, Struthers said it’s a wide range depending on what part of the province you farm in and whether that area got timely rain.

“Yield looks very good, especially in the eastern and northern regions where that moisture was received just in time to carry that crop through. Some very poor yields have been seen in the west, central and southwest with pockets seeing better yields than they did last year. But many producers are coming out with single-digit yields in some of those areas,” Struthers said.

Harvest in the southwest and west-central regions is virtually complete with the northwest is at 94 per cent, northeast 87 per cent, the southeast 86 per cent and the east central 81 per cent.

The final crop report will be issued Oct. 20 when a complete harvest assessment will be shared.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW