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CROP REPORT: Farmers happy to get through difficult harvest

Oct 29, 2015 | 6:05 PM

Now that harvest is 99 per cent complete, farmers are looking back on a trying season.

Shannon Friesen, with Saskatchewan Agriculture, said harvest was, “very, very challenging” for many farmers.

The season had an early start with desiccation and swathing beginning by the end of July or early August. It continued for three or four months, finishing within the last few weeks.

“Wrapping up near the end of October is certainly not surprising, especially considering the year that we had,” said Friesen.

Frequent rainfall, delayed maturity and secondary growth of weeds and the crop caused delays.

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“Overall, it was a pretty difficult harvest but everything seemed to come off in OK shape,” she continued. “We’re just glad it’s done.”

Some flax crops in the northeast have been slow to dry down, according to Friesen, who said for the most part farmers near Prince Albert have finished combining.

“Hopefully some of this cooler weather will help get some of those fields in,” she said.

In the northeast region, yields and quality are average, if not well below, according to the report.

With what Friesen calls a long, open fall, farmers now have time for harrowing, anhydrous, hauling grain and bails, among other things.  

“We’ve been happy to not have winter come early on us,” she said.

Keith Byrne, who’s been farming east of Prince Albert for 35 years, said the majority of his crops were average this time around.

Harvest didn’t exactly go as planned, but he said it feels, “very good” to be done.

“For us, you could say it was rough. It went a long time, it dragged out because of all of the different rains,” said Byrne. “We just finished before this last rain.”

Without dryers it was difficult since many crops were tough due to weather.

“For people who didn’t have dryers, (harvest) lasted a long time,” said Byrne.  

Rainfall throughout harvest caused sprouting, bleaching and staining in many cereal and pulse crops.

Byrne mostly farmed canola and wheat. The canola ended up being average or above average and the wheat average. At this point, he said he hasn’t tried to sell this year’s crop.

“Last year at this time I know wheat and some of the cereals were hard to get rid of,” said Byrne. “Usually something comes along and there’s a market for it. I don’t know what prices will be like, if they’ll bounce back to what they were.”

Crop quality remains an issue for some areas, with the majority rated either close to or below the 10-year average, according to this week’s Crop Report.

Yields for hard red spring wheat are reported as 37 bushels per acre, durum 38 bushels per acre, oats 85 bushels per acre, barley 59 bushels per acre, canola 34 bushels per acre, peas 31 bushels per acre and lentils 1,293 pounds per acre.

Heading into winter, the majority of topsoil moisture conditions are rated as adequate. Hay land and pasture topsoil is much the same.

In northeastern Saskatchewan, many fields remain wet and there are some concerns that excess snowfall this winter could cause flooding issues in the spring.

Average dryland hay yields for the region are as follows (in tons per acre): alfalfa and alfalfa/brome 1.5; other tame hay 1.8 and greenfeed 1.0. The majority of livestock producers are indicating they have adequate to surplus supplies of feed (hay, straw, greenfeed and grain).

Crop reporters have indicated that winter cereal acres are similar to previous years. A late harvest caused some delays for producers.

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha