With an estimated 5% of the provincial crop in the bin, early yield results from Manitoba are highly variable.
According to the latest weekly crop report on Tuesday, spring wheat yields are ranging between 20 and 70 bu/acre, but with high protein. Early harvested oat crops are yielding between 15 and 80 bu/acre, with many averaging between 40 to 60bu/acre but often lightweight.
Thunderstorms arrived over much of Manitoba Monday into Tuesday morning, with amounts generally between 10 to 45 mm. Cereal crops are not expected to benefit, although some late canola, soybeans, corn and sunflowers could still get a boost, the report said. Farmers continue to make greenfeed and determine end use for damaged and drought-affected grain crops.
Overall crop conditions remain weak, with canola crops rated an average of just 36% good to excellent across the entire province. Spring wheat was rated 48% good to excellent on a provincewide basis, followed by oats and barley at 41% each. Flax was rated 31% good to excellent, corn 25%, dry beans 44% and soybeans 53%. Sunflowers and peas are holding up relatively better at 63% and 64% good to excellent, respectively.
Southwest:
Very hot daytime temperatures this week, up to 35°C; daily averages around 21°C. Minimum overnight temperatures were down to 7 to 12°C. Lack of rain is still stressing crops. Rain on the weekend and Monday fell throughout the region but amounts are variable, most of the region had between 10 to 45 mm. This rain came too late for cereals, but will help other crops and pastures. Any rainfall has benefitted crop quality and bushel weights in canola, corn, soybean, and sunflowers.
Early seeded spring cereals are ripening and producers have started pre-harvest. The majority of cereals will be close to pre-harvest by the end of the week. Some early seeded barley and oats have been harvested with yields average to below average.
Canola has started to ripen; swathing has been started in some areas but later seeded or reseeded canola is moving past flowering now and showing some moisture stress. Several producers are going to straight-cut canola this year due to uneven crops, and will require a pre-harvest desiccant. Smoke and hazy conditions have helped canola extend flowering period.
Northwest:
A break in the high temperatures this week was welcomed for a few days, along with higher humidity and isolated thundershowers. Most parts of the region received at least some rainfall, although smaller amounts in areas that could benefit the most. Minitonas/Birch River received the most precipitation with 23 mm accumulated. Water sources and soil moisture conditions across the entire region continue to remain very dry.
Field pea harvest is underway across the region. Yields are reportedly lower with the average about 35 to 40 bu/ac range across most of the region, and a little higher near Grandview with 45 bu/ac average. Averages may change as harvest continues. Desiccation also continues as stages are reached.
Desiccation of spring wheat across most of the region is occurring as stages are reached, with the exception of The Pas where most wheat is at soft dough. Harvest has begun in the southern portion of the region with a wide range in yield and quality, although just starting and still early to base an average. Oats and barley continue to ripen.
Canola for most of the region is podded and ripening. Canola in The Pas is 90% podded, with the remaining in the flowering stage. Sunscald has become evident due to recent high temperatures and UV indices. About half of the canola in the region is rated as good, with the remainder rated as fair and a small percentage in poor condition.
Central:
After a week of continued warm and dry conditions, a thunderstorm system moved across the region on Monday bringing significant precipitation to all parts of the region. Precipitation amounts varied from 10 mm in Manitou to 50 mm in areas located along the international border, but most areas received 15 to 25 mm. Some hail reported in the Altona area but damage considered light at this point while affected fields are assessed. The rain was rapidly absorbed by the dry soils even in areas with higher precipitation.
Soil moisture is improved from poor to good for areas with recent rainfall, which will benefit late maturing crops most. Harvest operations will be delayed slightly, but should resume soon with a sunny and warm forecast.
Winter cereals are ripe with only patches in fields still ripening in few cases. Harvest of perennial ryegrass and fall rye is wrapping up with more last fields being swathed ahead of harvest. Yield reports for rye is in the 60 to 70 bu/ac acre range with good quality grain reported. Wheat, oats and barley are ripening rapidly. Spring wheat harvest is just beginning west of the escarpment while in the Red River Valley about 15 to 30% is done in the Altona to Carman areas. The Plum Coulee area toward Winnipeg is most advanced with some growers have their wheat harvest already done. Yields vary widely according to soil type and moisture conditions. Yields are reported from 20 to 70 bu/ac, with many averaging near 40 bu/acre with good quality. Protein levels are reported between 15 and 16% on CWRS wheat.
Barley harvest is also underway with about 20 to 25% done and yield reports range from 50 to 100 bu/ac but averaging closer to 70 bu/acre. Whatever straw is available is being baled quickly with lots of trucks on the road moving bales. Oat harvest started with 10 to 20% done and yields vary widely from 40 to 100 bu/ac, again dependent on soil type and moisture conditions.
Eastern:
Rainfall accumulation across the region ranged from 7 to greater than 50 mm. Almost all of this rainfall arrived as thunderstorms and general rain showers on Monday and overnight into Tuesday of this week. Up until these rainfall events, most reporting districts continued to experience warm to hot and dry weather. Even though cereal harvest had to pause, grain producers were generally pleased with the rainfall but those who received an inch or less hoped that more was on its way. Dairy and beef producers were not expecting much benefit in hay and pasture conditions given the time of year but hoped that the rainfall would raise river levels and at least partially refill dugouts. The recent rainfall is expected to help preserve yield potential in warm season crops like soybean, corn and sunflower and support continued seed filling in canola.
Winter wheat and fall rye harvest made good progress with many producers done or almost done. Winter wheat yield reports varied from 50 to 80 bu/ac on whole field basis with light soil areas doing as low as 30 bu/acre. Good seed quality and test weight were noted. Fall rye yields were highly variable in fields in correlation with soil types. Yields ranging from 50 to 90 bu/ac across fields with whole fields averaging out in that 70 to 80 bu/ac range.
Spring wheat harvest began in earnest last week but limited progress was made with only 5 to 10% of acres harvested. Producers were finding that field that looked yield ready might still have seed moistures testing 20% or more. Some drying of wheat was being done to push harvest along and preserve quality. Initial yield reports ranged from 50 to 70 bu/ac with growers hoping that most spring stands had enough moisture to complete filling in time. Initial quality reports indicated low or zero fusarium and good bushel weights.
Oat harvesting continued last week with most producers disappointed with results. Yield reports ranged from 50 to 100 bu/ac with 70 bu/ac averages and light bushel weights commonly reported.
Interlake:
Monday thundershowers provided some temperature relief in the northern Interlake, and rainfall of 10 to 25 mm fell between Moosehorn though Taylor’s Point to Arborg and south to Teulon. Harvest was delayed slightly, but extremely dry topsoils have absorbed all water, and cereal harvest will resume shortly. Fall rye harvest is complete, no yields reported.
Spring wheat, barley, and oat harvest continues, with yields below average for all crops. Wheat yields range from 25 to 70 bu/acre, averaging in the low between 35 to 40 bu/acre. Many crops have fewer spikelets than normal, and kernel size is smaller.
Oats are typically yielding 50 to 80 bu/ac in the south Interlake area; most oats is lightweight. Many oat crops were already cut and baled off for greenfeed. Barley has been yielding between 20 to 80 bu/ac, averaging mid-40’s.
Cereal straw is in high demand, and all straw is being dropped and baled behind combines and harvest progresses.
A high number of reseeded canola crops mean that canola ripening and swathing is delayed, but original crop is turning brown, and beginning seed colour change. Desiccation on variable crops will start towards the end of this week. Yields are anticipated to be between 5 to 10 bu/acre on poor stands, and may be better on rain-fed areas closer to Meadows. Swathing has started on a few scattered fields not intended as a straight-cut hybrid, over 90% of canola crops are expected to be direct-harvested. Some farmers are forced to spray for diamondback moth larvae, as levels have risen in the past five days.
Flax crops are suffering, and smaller less developed root systems are leaving bolls unfilled and shrivelled.
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