By Alice McFarlane

Manitoba farmers reach halfway point with 2021 harvest

Sep 8, 2021 | 4:53 PM

MELFORT, Sask. — Rain has caused some delays with combining but Manitoba producers continue to make excellent progress getting the crop in the bin.

Manitoba Agriculture oilseeds specialist Dane Froese said there was more combining in the southwest and northwest regions as crops became more mature, or they reached the correct stage for desiccation.

“We’re seeing 75 per cent complete or more in the northwest and starting to see a pretty good jump on the canola harvest, as well,” Froese said.

Soil moisture conditions range from dry to saturated where there were heavy rains, according to Froese.

“We’re seeing soil moisture rapidly improve in the top 30 centimeters which has led to a lot of greening up of pastures and some forage regrowth. But we’re also seeing a lot of volunteer cereals and even vegetative canola come back to life, for better or for worse, causing some harvest issues,” Froese said.

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Most producers are still cautious about overworking the soil right now trying to conserve as much moisture as possible and help recharge the soil for next year. Froese said that moisture has not worked down very far.

“Much of that moisture has not yet percolated down into the soil profile down to deeper depths up to 120 centimeters. So we’re seeing soils drier at that depth, but they are slowly recharging,” Froese said. “A few more rains and the subsoil should be recharged a fair bit more, which will really help for the 2022 crop.”

Fall cereal seeding has started with fall rye and winter wheat going into the ground as canola stubble is made available. Froese said the weather conditions and soil moisture are excellent for those crops.

“We do expect to see them come up fairly soon and, in some cases, farmers have begun a pre-seed burnoff or pre-emergent burnoff on those fields,” Froese said.

There were isolated incidents where extreme rain and hail knocked some canola out of the pods or caused some shattering. Froese said wind has been more of an issue on swathed canola.

“We did hear of a couple of producers that were chasing canola swaths that were blown around the field,” Froese said. “Canola yield is lower this year as we know, and lighter canola swaths mean that wind is much more prone to picking up and moving those swaths across the field and that can be a challenge at this time of year.”

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW