By Sarah Wallace

Northeast has slow harvesting week

Oct 11, 2013 | 7:08 AM

Harvesting continues around the province with much of the province either finished or very close to being completed.

Eighty-nine per cent of the provincial crop has been combined with eight per cent swathed or ready to be straight cut which is a little ahead of the five-year average of 85 per cent combined and 11 per cent swathed.

The northeastern region had a bit of a slower week due to the rain last week, but according to Daphne Cruise, a regional crop specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, by this past weekend most producers were able to get back into the field.

Eighty-five per cent of the crop in the northeast is now combined, which Cruise said is about on track with the five-year average.

“Harvest progress throughout the region does range from 81 per cent combined in places like Tisdale, Melfort, Prince Albert to 90 per cent combined further south near Cudworth and Birch Hills area,” Cruise said.

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When it comes to the rain that fell last week in the region, Cruise said, “As far as anything still standing and also in the swath we could potentially see some bleaching and maybe some sprouting issues, but again it all depends a lot of the rain that did fall and how quickly things will dry out.”

“We definitely could potentially see some of the grade losses or at least some weathering issues in wheats in particular,” she continued.

With 85 per cent of the region’s crops combined, producers are still about 10 days away from completing harvesting – that is if the weather co-operates.

“When we get to this time of year, combining days are quite short, we often aren’t in the field until after lunch and sometimes shut down by suppertime or sundown. We are getting shorter days … if the weather cooperates it will be that week to 10 days for sure,” Cruise said.

For the west side of the province, harvesting has pretty much wrapped up expect a few fields of flax and canary seed, and should be wrapped up for the year very shortly.

The east and north regions need a little more time and Cruise said it should be in that 10-day range if the weather holds up.

“Crop conditions look fairly good. We asked our crop reporters to bring wheat grades for the area, we’re looking at 63 per cent number one, 36 per cent number two and one per cent number three for the north east region, so grades are still looking pretty good on spring wheat and I think average to above average for quality. Many producers are experiencing some pretty high yields and above average yields are expected for the majority of the region. That being said there are some areas that did have some challenges throughout the year with growing conditions with too much rain, where at least average yields are expected for those producers,” she said.

Weekly Crop Report

According to the weekly crop report harvesting is most complete in the west-central region with 97 per cent of the crops combined.

The rest of the province comes in with:
– Southeast – 85 per cent combined
– Southwest – 84 per cent combined
– East-Central – 83 per cent
– Northeast – 85 per cent
– Northwest – 92 per cent

Above average yields are being reported for more areas. “Spring wheat average yields are reported as 47 bushels per acre, durum 44 bushels per acre, barley 69 bushels per acre, canola 38 bushels per acre and peas 43 bushels per acre. Average yields very from region to region, depending on seeing conditions and growing season moisture. Provincial spring wheat quality is estimated to be above average. Grades for spring wheat are estimated as 59 per cent 1CW, 31 per cent 2CW, nine per cent 3CW and one per cent CW feed,” according to the weekly crop report.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid