By Angela Brown

Harvest progressing in northwest region, despite some rain delays

Sep 25, 2020 | 1:57 PM

BATTLEFORDS, Sask. – Harvesting is moving along in the northwestern Saskatchewan region, despite some delays from heavy rainfall in parts.

Producers are hoping for more suitable weather so they can finish combining their crop.

Charlie Smith grows canola, wheat and barley on his farm in the Rabbit Lake area, about 80 kilometres northeast of the Battlefords.

He would like to see the rain hold off, to be able to finish taking his crop off the field.

“If the weather would co-operate, in two or three days the cereal should be dry,” Smith said.

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His canola will be harvested first, followed by the wheat and barley which are taking longer to dry.

Smith said farmers in his area are finding harvesting is a bit slow right now.

“We have had cooler weather up here, and it is just not curing and drying,” he said. “The cereal grains aren’t drying. Canola finally got dry for the farmers, so we are combining [that].”

Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Crops Extension Specialist Sara Tetland said overall across the province 77 per cent of the crop has been harvested, based on the latest crop report. Most of the progress has been in the southern parts, with 96 per cent combined in the southwestern region and 89 per cent in the southeastern area.

The northwestern region of the province saw a total of 43 per cent of the crop combined so far in comparison.

Overall for the northwestern region Tetland said harvest is moving along, and is actually ahead of the five-year average for this time of year.

She noted the Sept. 20 heavy rains in the Battlefords area to the eastern edge of the region had an impact on the harvest progress.

“Some areas over the weekend did receive a little bit of rainfall so that has caused some delays,” she said.

The area west of Mayfair in particular received the highest amount of rain in the region at 42 mm.

Tetland said some farmers noted lodging or flattening of crops as a result of wind and wet weather.

“They have a couple days of delay just due to that rain before they can get out in the field,” she said.

“It has been damp and cool out,” she said. “Ideally during harvest you would have warm and hot, dry weather to keep the crop canopy dry. When it is kind of damp out the crop is actually tough to be combined, so it is more difficult to cut the plant and thresh the seed out of the plant.”

As a result some of the crop that is coming off is either being placed into aeration bins that circulates air within the seed, or in grain dryers to actually bring the moisture content down to a safe level of storage.

The Lloydminster area up to Meadow Lake experienced relatively dry conditions this past week in comparison, helping with harvest in that part of the region.

So for the most part, Tetland said, harvesting in the northwestern region overall is going well, despite some delays in parts.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW