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2026 Manitoba Crop Report

Rain delays harvest in Manitoba

Aug 20, 2026 | 10:05 AM

Rain fell across most of Manitoba over the past week, and that slowed harvest progress. 

According to the latest crop report from Manitoba Agriculture even with the wet weather, the crop continued to ripen. 

James Frey, Applied Research and Production Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture based in Roblin, said the rain was a good thing for some farmers unless they were putting up feed.  

“I suppose if you had hay on the ground, it wasn’t welcome, but in most cases, people were glad to see about one and half inches in McCreary, and three-tenths in Swan Valley. It was somewhere in between for everywhere else,” Frey said.  “The nights have been cooling down into single digits. The lowest temperature recorded during the reporting period was at Inglis at 4.1 degrees. As the nights get that cool, there is a lot of dew on the grass in the morning, it takes longer to dry out.”  

Frey said the crop will benefit from getting moisture to help fill out the seed heads, soybeans especially. It is also beneficial for pastures.

“It’s great to see some rain on the pastures which are showing some signs of what is called summer dormancy where the growth just begins to slow down and the plants are kind of beginning to focus on restoring energy into the roots for the upcoming winter.”  

Frey said insects are still a concern for livestock producers with fly pressure in the pastures, although that has lessened lately.  

“There are concerns about pinkeye transmission and foot rot is also something to be watched for. But the good news about a bit more moisture having come down is that we see those dugouts are in pretty good shape,” he added.  

If the weather holds and there is no additional rainfall, farmers will be wrapping up the winter cereal crops and moving into the spring cereals, peas, and canola over the next week. 

alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

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