Rainfall has harvest well behind schedule

Farmers in Saskatchewan who were desperate for rain earlier this year now want it to stop.

In its weekly crop report, Saskatchewan Agriculture said “frequent rainfall and cool weather” are delaying harvest in the province.

Only 11 per cent of crops are now in the bin, the report said. That’s up from six per cent last week, but well behind the five-year average (2014-18) of 28 per cent for this time of year.

As well, only 16 per cent of the crop is now swathed or ready to straight-cut.

“We have some crops that are mature enough to get through the combine and get in the bin,” Clinton Monchuk, a farmer in the Lanigan area, told 650 CKOM on Thursday. “But the moisture content is so high from all this rain that we’ve been getting that it’s making things a little bit more difficult.”

The report said harvest is furthest along in the southwest region of the province, with 20 per cent of the crop is combined. The southeast (16 per cent combined), west-central (seven per cent), northwest (six per cent), northeast (four per cent) and east-central (three per cent) regions have lower numbers.

“We could certainly use 25 maybe to 30 degrees for the next three, four days,” Rosetown area farmer Jim Wickett told 650 CKOM. “Cereals are quite behind here. (There’s) a lot of green left in the cereals.”

According to the report, rainfall across the province last week ranged from trace amounts to 45 millimetres in the Lampman area. Crop damage was due to localized flooding, strong winds, light frost and hail.

The full report can be found here.