Farmers Continue To Work On The Harvest

Oct 12, 2018

Farmer’s continue to work away at the harvest as weather allows.

Crops Extension Specialist Shannon Friesen says producers have been delayed by snow and cool, wet weather.

As a result, there’s a lot of lodging out in the field, as well as signs of bleaching and sprouting showing up in samples causing some downgrading at the elevator.

Farmers are also reporting some crop damage from geese and other wildlife feeding on the swathed crops.

Overall, Friesen says not much progress was made in the southern part of the province last week but farmers in other areas were finally able to get back into the field.

"Harvest in the Southwest remains at 90% complete, the southeast is at 89%. The west-central region had some good progress last week and they are now at 70%, the northeast made about 20% progress over the last week and they now sit with 64% of the crop in the bin. The east-central region has 63% combined and the northwestern region has 44% of the crop in the bin. They have seen a lot more moisture and a lot more snow than the rest of the province."

Friesen says there’s a little bit of everything left to harvest from cereals to canola, flax, soybeans even a few fields of peas and lentils.

Crops are coming off tough or damp and going into grain dryers which are now running 24-7.

The full version of Saskatchewan Agriculture's latest Crop Report is available here.

Source : Discoverestevan

Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.