Farmscape for October 21, 2016

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports ongoing wet cool weather has continued to delay the completion of this year's harvest and taken a dramatic toll on crop quality.
Frequent rain and snow, along with cool temperatures have stalled the Saskatchewan harvest for about three weeks now.
Daphne Cruise, a Cropping Management Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, reports over the past month, harvest progress has been minimal due to wet conditions and most areas received rain this past week, with areas in the northeast and northwest reporting snow.

Clip-Daphne Cruise-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
Some producers were able to get back into the fields for a few hours on the weekend before the rain and snow came through.
But it didn't amount to very many acres being put through the combines and, in many cases, this crop was put through damp and not without challenges in the field with very wet conditions and stuck combines and that kind of thing.
Right now we're sitting at 81 percent of the 2016 crop combined and that remains unchanged from last week.
Basically the longer they sit out there and more weathering occurs with rain and snow, downgrading becomes the biggest issue.
Right now we're seeing things like bleaching and sprouting in the cereals,
The oilseeds can hold up a bit better but even now we'll probably start to see some quality issues when it comes to the oil components of the canola and the flax, not to mention a yield loss that happens with shattering.
Right now we're hearing indications of waterfowl like geese and cranes moving into the fields as well as they start their migration route.
A lot of things right now are kind of going against getting this harvest in but producers are hopeful that they'll be able to get out there for a little bit longer and get some acres through but many are predicting there'll be some crop left out over winter.

Cruise says a few weeks of weather that's not interrupted by rain or snow will be needed to complete the harvest but, as we get into November the chance of that becomes less likely because we don't get those long days with drying conditions.
She encourages producers to contact Crop Insurance to discuss options, if crop is left out over the winter.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork