By Alice McFarlane

Farmers in north west Saskatchewan ready to start 2020 harvest

Aug 20, 2020 | 2:11 PM

SASKATCHEWAN – While farmers in south west Saskatchewan have 11 per cent of the crop combined, producers in the north west are just getting started.

Less than one per cent of the crop is in the bin in northern regions. Some farmers have started to desiccate and swath earlier seeded crops and many more plan to start in the next few weeks.

Glaslyn area farmer Bernie McClean said he hopes to get started in the next few days.

“The earliest crops for myself would be malt barley. I seed malt first now and that’s getting really close,” McClean told farmnewsNOW. “If the weather allows, we’ll likely start swathing this weekend or very early next week already.”

Some rain was reported in the province. Rain is not needed in near-mature or ready-to-harvest crops, but some later-seeded crops and pastures would benefit from more moisture.

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McClean said two rain events in June and July made fields quite wet and made haying difficult. But the recent hot weather was welcome after all the moisture.

“Things have dried up and the crops have matured quite quickly with the last two weeks of very nice temperatures that we’ve seen. All in all, the crops will be average, maybe slightly above average but the crops will be okay this year,” he said.

Moisture conditions declined throughout most of the province this week, except for areas in the southeast and east-central regions that received rain.

The majority of crop damage was caused by wind, heat, lack of moisture, wildlife, and insects such as grasshoppers. There have been some reports of flea beetle damage in canola, as well as localized hail damage.

McClean said after last year’s very wet and difficult harvest he is hoping for a much better fall.

“I’m looking forward to a nice harvest. We hope it happens. We’ll see what the future brings,” McClean said.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF