By Sarah Stone

Heavy rains may impact crop quality

Sep 26, 2013 | 4:23 PM

The more than 50 millimetres (mm) of rain that has been hammering down on parts of east-central Saskatchewan could impact the crops in the area.

Shannon Friesen, regional crop specialist in Weyburn, said “at this stage of the game most of the crops want dry conditions to sort of mature,” adding if the rain came even three weeks ago it could have been beneficial to those late seeded crops.

“Certainly, rain will slow down harvest of course. No one likes to combine tough grain or anything like that,” she said. “And there may be some quality issues, but overall it’s kind of a wait and see what happens.”

Friesen explained when there is heavy rain such as the conditions in Melfort, Tisdale and Carrot River; it creates a wet, heavy crop that makes it tough and difficult to combine.

“It just tends to take out the colour of it, it will damage it a little bit,” she said.

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“Any swathed crops may have some quality issues such as bleaching or sprouting. We are seeing that in the southern half of the province that has actually received rain in the past seven to 10 days. Anything that is still standing has a bit of better chance,” she explained.

In the end though, it’s no one will know how the rain has impacted the crops fully until it is harvested.

Friesen estimates harvest will wrap up in the next two to three weeks depending on how much heat, sun or rain the areas receive.

Weekly crop report

Currently, 60 per cent of the crops in the east-central areas have been combined. This is compared to the provincial average of 71 per cent, according to the Saskatchewan Agriculture Weekly Crop Report.

Although yields vary between regions, average to above-average yields are being reported in most areas.

Average yields for spring wheat are reported as 46 bushels an acre, durum as 44 bushels an acre, barley as 68 bushels an acre, canola as 38 bushels an acre and peas as 43 bushels an acre.

As of Thursday morning, only three per cent of the province reported a surplus of moisture in the top soil with 53 reporting the topsoil moisture as adequate.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter:@sarahstone84