By Bruce Cochrane
Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development reports recent rains have delayed the completion of harvest and impacted the quality of crops still in the fields.
Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development's weekly Crop Report indicates the cereal grain harvest now ranges from 80 to 100 percent complete in the Central and Eastern regions to as low as 20 to 70 percent in the Southwest region.
Cereal crop specialist Pam de Rocquigny says, general speaking, yields for most crop types are ranging from average to above average.
Pam de Rocquigny-Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development:
We've seen a little bit of variability in our red spring wheat yields from the Northwest region.
They're reporting anywhere from 25 bushels per acre up to towards that 70 bushels per acre and a lot of that variability has to do with the precipitation and perhaps lack of it earlier in the season that kind of impacted yields.
We're seeing a little bit more variability with canola yields as well, perhaps in the central region, where we've heard reports of yields as low as 10 to 15 bushels per acre but as high as 50 bushels per acre and, once again, that variability has to do with precipitation and more in this case, in the central region, areas that received too much precipitation, that's really having an impact on those yields as well.
In terms of quality most of the crop has been of good quality so far but, in terms of our cereal crops that are still out there remaining to be harvested, there is some downgrading that has happened due to some of the recent precipitation events that we have had over the last weekend and then over the previous weekend as well.
We're seeing some weathering so that's resulting in some downgrading due to sprouting or staining or those kind of factors.
The stuff that was harvested earlier on was of good quality and we're kind of seeing a trend where, as harvest is getting pushed back due to wet, rainy conditions, that's having an impact on the quality of the crop as well.
De Rocquigny says farmers make really good progress when we have no rain, warm temperatures and good drying winds so those three things would definitely be welcomed by producers getting their spring cereals and canola off.
Source: Farmscape