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Wet weather continues to challenge Manitoba producers

Sep 23, 2026 | 2:11 PM

Some Manitoba farmers continued to face harvest challenges after another week of significant rainfall slowed field work and raised concerns about crop quality. 

In this week’s crop report, Manitoba Agriculture reported that the Southwest Region received the highest precipitation totals in the province between Sept. 14 and 20. Miniota recorded 77.8 millimetres of rain, while even the driest reporting location in the region, Glenboro, received 22.5 millimetres. 

James Frey, applied research and production specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said harvest is 43 per cent complete province-wide, but the northwest region is at just 24 per cent, mainly due to weather conditions.  

He said frost and heavy dew have presented challenges to farmers. 

“We do see a little bit of reports of frost that have touched some of the plants, so the soy plants that were not quite as far along and maybe burned a bit of those leaves. Also, a little bit of damage to some silage corn, but nothing that’s going to knock it out of the growing season,” Frey said. “The heavy dews that we have in the morning mean that even now, as the weather has turned a bit nicer, getting into the field a little bit later in the morning and also some folks have been able to get some stuff off and use their dryers to just have something to do.” 

Frey said he expects a jump in harvest numbers in next week’s report, because this week’s weather has been generally good. 

“The report I’m giving now is definitely a reflection of the much wetter weather that we had last week. Over the weekend and then into this week now, there’s been a lot of good work that’s been going on, so that’s encouraging. There’s also some post-harvest field work that’s been happening as it’s possible,” he said. 

Looking to next year’s crop, Frey said there are some winter cereals that are going in, and the conditions for those are quite optimal.  

“We have good soil moisture, and the weather now is still appreciably warm. We should see some good germination quite quickly.” 

Livestock producers are still enjoying good pasture conditions. Frey said pasture regrowth, especially for this time of year, has been exceptional with the recent moisture and the warmer temperatures. He said daylight is dwindling and it’s cool at night, so pasture growth is slowing, but overall, still good conditions for livestock out in the field. There’s been some good conditions for baling straw and even some late hay and a bit of silage; corn silage has been coming in.  

Frey encouraged producers to test their feed supplies early to get a good sense of the feed value which helps with winter planning ahead of time as they develop rations based on the feed supplies coming in. 

alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com