Farmscape for October 5, 2018

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports rain and snow over the past couple of weeks has delayed the harvest and is impacting crop quality.
Saskatchewan Agriculture's weekly crop report, released yesterday, indicates rain and snow across the province over the past couple of weeks has stalled the harvest in some areas but, as the snow has melted, farmers have been able to make limited progress.
Shannon Friesen, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says about 73 percent of the crop is now in the bin, up five percent from last week, but behind the five year average of about 78 percent and, with better weather in the forecast, farmers are hoping to get back into the fields this weekend.

Clip-Shannon Friesen-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
Quality up until the rain a couple of weeks ago was in really good condition.
Most of our pulses had come off, a good chunk of the cereals as well and things were looking to be really good.
Then we just continued to get the rain and the snow and we've had a lot of issues with lodging and with lodging comes a lot of flattened crops and a lot of difficult crop to pick up.
We've also heard many reports of sprouting as well as bleaching in many of the cereal crops and even some of the standing canola actually shelling out.
We did ask our crop reporters this week about the quality of spring wheat.
Currently what has been harvested so far is rated as 54 percent as a number one, 25 percent as a number two, 17 percent as a number and four percent as a feed.
Of course we do have likely several weeks left in terms of harvest so we will have some updated numbers later on.

Friesen says the rain and snow is like a double edged sword because, although it has improved soil conditions and is appreciated, it has delayed the harvest.
She says what is need now is a long stretch of warm, dry and windy days in order to dry up fields and allow farmers to resume the harvest.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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