Manitoba Harvest Passes One-Third Complete

Sep 10, 2024

The Manitoba harvest is now more than one-third complete with mostly dry conditions helping to speed progress.

Tuesday’s weekly crop report pegged the overall harvest of all crops in the province at 40% done, up from 26% a week earlier.

The harvest is the most advanced in the Central Region at 51% complete, followed by the Eastern Region at 47%, the Southwest at 38%, and the Interlake at 34%. Progress is least advanced in the Northwest at 25% complete.

The pea harvest is now reported at 98% done, with barley and oats at 76% and 73%, respectively. The spring wheat harvest is 68% done, and canola 30% complete.

Spring wheat yield estimates range from 60 to 90 bu/acre, with an average of 70 bu/acre in the Central and Eastern regions. In the north Interlake, spring wheat yields range from 25 to 55 bu/acre, and up to 70 bu/acre in the south Interlake. Oat yield estimates range from 80-180 bu/acre, with generally good bushel weights. Barley yields range from 90 to 115 bu/acre.

Canola harvest continues in most regions of the province. Swathing and pre-harvest applications are ongoing.

Field pea yield reports range from 30 to 65 bu/acre. Dry bean harvest has started with some dealers receiving the first loads of beans such as light red kidney, cranberry, black and pinto beans.

Southwest:

Good weather conditions with low humidity, above-normal temperatures, and some decent afternoon winds have allowed for a good stretch of harvest. Temperatures have ranged from 27.6°C to 33.6°C, with minimum overnight temperatures between 0.8°C and 6.9°C and daily averages around 16.5°C. These frost-free temperatures are helping crops complete their natural maturation.

Northwest:

A mix of weather this week still allowed for good harvest progress. Unsettled weather events did bring thunderstorms to parts of the region, including hail in the Swan Valley area. There was varying degrees of damage to some crops. Pipe Lake station received the most recorded precipitation at 16 mm, while the lowest recorded precipitation was Swan River station with just under 1 mm. Some areas along the western portion of the region received a light frost, with temperatures close to 0 but it wasn’t a killing frost. Swan Valley station was lowest recorded overnight temperature at 0.5 °C. High day time temperatures helped crops to move along over the weekend with The Pas station the highest at 32.6 °C. Some crops remain lodged from previous high winds and continue to be a challenge for harvest and may possibly affect quality with recent rains and heavy dew. Some post-harvest field operations are being done as time allows.

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Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators