By Alice McFarlane

East central Saskatchewan farmers making progress on 2020 harvest

Sep 1, 2020 | 3:10 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – Farmers are continuing to work on the 2020 crop as weather permits.

Brett Halstead farms in the Nokomis area. He said combining has been on and off for the past few weeks.

“It’s been a little bit of a struggle getting the last of the green stuff out of everything. The warm weather is getting us closer and we’re getting steady now and we’re going to keep busy while the weather is good,” Halstead said.

Halstead said rain would be welcome but it can wait until after the crop is in the bin. He said farmers remember very well how the wet weather made the 2019 harvest extremely difficult.

“Last year we had a little bit off early, but it got so wet after that we quickly got way behind,” he said. “The fact that it’s dry, we don’t need the moisture right now because we’d rather get the harvest finished off.”

Raiders lose 5-4

Second period woes plague Raiders against Broncos

4h ago

Riders win

Roughriders down Redblacks 29-16 to vault over Lions in CFL's West Division

10h ago

Unmarked Graves

Eight potential graves found near site of former George Gordon First Nation residential school

17h ago

Halstead said it would be nice to have a normal October where you don’t have to dry grain and wait for the last of the crop to come in.

He estimated about 25 per cent of his crop is in the bin and rated yields as good.

“I wouldn’t say they’re exceptional, but it hasn’t rained for a while. In general, good to slightly above average,” he explained.

Halstead also has cattle and he said rain will be needed to replenish pastures.

“We had good rains in June and July so the hay crop ended up not bad but the pastures right now are really dried out,” he said.

Halstead said they will be looking for a place for the cattle to graze once harvest is finished.

–

alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF