Crop by Crop
HRS & Durum
South durum looks okay — a good amount of acres will be better than last year with better quality. Further north it’s mixed: some good, some great. On HRS it seems fewer acres went in; it’s average across the board — not the best, not a wreck. I saw lighter areas on the drive changing colour with the heat, while some northern fields are still green as grass and late. Fusarium doesn’t appear to be an issue in Saskatchewan. We’re almost caught up to normal crop development. Kernel is firming and seed is present.
Peas
Southern early-seeded peas are ready to spray or will be soon. Where rotation was pushed, the rain hurt and disease is present. Our best peas are on ground that hadn’t been seeded to peas in years (or 8 years ago); our worst are on 6-year rotations, though they did come back a bit. We’ll be spraying the first fields next Sunday or August 8–10.
Lentils
All over the map — some dirty, some really clean, some almost whole fields dead, some nice. Big question: did they really flower and set much seed?
Canary seed
Looks great in our area.
Barley
Barley, barley, and more barley. Did I miss a meeting last winter? Early barley is turning in our area, later is filling, and the really late stuff is just heading. Heads are smaller but thicker and filling. Looking at August 10–15. Heat is moving it fast. Southern Alberta guys were swathing Tuesday; further north I saw guys still spraying.
Flax
Everywhere from done to still filling, some still with blue flowers. Average crop.
Canola
Early-seeded is finished flowering; late-seeded is ending flowering now. Shifted timeframe and thinner stands. Later-seeded not as good. Deep roots are hanging on. Early podded looks nice, later is okay. One rain would finish it nicely. Later-seeded is only about a week behind normal now. Still seeing some full-blooming fields in the north and even our area. Flowering is taking a hit on the 30 °C+ days.
Oats, ok but not our areas best.
Pastures & Hay
Pastures are holding up okay where they weren’t heavily grazed. First cut is about 10% better than last year in our area. Don’t think most will do a second cut — just the odd guy.
Bottom Line
Heat is on and damage is starting to show. Still better for most than the last few years. The north is late but moving ahead. Western Canada wide it’s average at best — some will have their best ever, some will be better than a drought year. Acres lost to flooding yield nothing.
More heat next week after a minor cooler stretch. Positive side: it’s pushing this crop ahead so maybe we can beat the early-September cool-down.
Have a great long weekend. My dad always wanted rain during Exhibition Week in Regina — that almost always guaranteed a very decent crop. Guess what? It’s Exhibition Week… and I want one too.
Tell me about your area or what you’re seeing.
HRS & Durum
South durum looks okay — a good amount of acres will be better than last year with better quality. Further north it’s mixed: some good, some great. On HRS it seems fewer acres went in; it’s average across the board — not the best, not a wreck. I saw lighter areas on the drive changing colour with the heat, while some northern fields are still green as grass and late. Fusarium doesn’t appear to be an issue in Saskatchewan. We’re almost caught up to normal crop development. Kernel is firming and seed is present.
Peas
Southern early-seeded peas are ready to spray or will be soon. Where rotation was pushed, the rain hurt and disease is present. Our best peas are on ground that hadn’t been seeded to peas in years (or 8 years ago); our worst are on 6-year rotations, though they did come back a bit. We’ll be spraying the first fields next Sunday or August 8–10.
Lentils
All over the map — some dirty, some really clean, some almost whole fields dead, some nice. Big question: did they really flower and set much seed?
Canary seed
Looks great in our area.
Barley
Barley, barley, and more barley. Did I miss a meeting last winter? Early barley is turning in our area, later is filling, and the really late stuff is just heading. Heads are smaller but thicker and filling. Looking at August 10–15. Heat is moving it fast. Southern Alberta guys were swathing Tuesday; further north I saw guys still spraying.
Flax
Everywhere from done to still filling, some still with blue flowers. Average crop.
Canola
Early-seeded is finished flowering; late-seeded is ending flowering now. Shifted timeframe and thinner stands. Later-seeded not as good. Deep roots are hanging on. Early podded looks nice, later is okay. One rain would finish it nicely. Later-seeded is only about a week behind normal now. Still seeing some full-blooming fields in the north and even our area. Flowering is taking a hit on the 30 °C+ days.
Oats, ok but not our areas best.
Pastures & Hay
Pastures are holding up okay where they weren’t heavily grazed. First cut is about 10% better than last year in our area. Don’t think most will do a second cut — just the odd guy.
Bottom Line
Heat is on and damage is starting to show. Still better for most than the last few years. The north is late but moving ahead. Western Canada wide it’s average at best — some will have their best ever, some will be better than a drought year. Acres lost to flooding yield nothing.
More heat next week after a minor cooler stretch. Positive side: it’s pushing this crop ahead so maybe we can beat the early-September cool-down.
Have a great long weekend. My dad always wanted rain during Exhibition Week in Regina — that almost always guaranteed a very decent crop. Guess what? It’s Exhibition Week… and I want one too.
Tell me about your area or what you’re seeing.
Comment