Saskatchewan Agriculture Reports Generally Above Average Crop Yields

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports, with harvest nearing completion, yields for all crop types are generally above average.Saskatchewan Agriculture released its crop report yesterday for the period from September 30th to October 6th.Aside from a few scattered showers in the northwest and eastern regions there was minimal rainfall over the past week.

Tyce Masich, a crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says the harvest is now 93 percent complete, which is behind the five-year average but ahead of the ten-year average and yields are looking good.

Quote-Tyce Masich-Saskatchewan Agriculture:

Our reporters gave us their yield information again this past week and it stacks up very similar to how it was a month ago back in September. The average yields across the province for all crop types are above the historical averages.That doesn’t necessarily mean it's a record-breaking crop.

It just means that it's an above average crop for this year which producers in most areas are satisfied to see. But again, there's some variation in crop yields throughout the province and that was mainly dependant on how much dry conditions and how much moisture there was throughout the growing season and that obviously influenced pest activity too which could have affected yields.

In general, the best yields are coming from the east central, west central, northeast, southeast regions and then the poorest yields are in the southwest and northwest areas. In my estimate I think most producers will be wrapped up in the next seven to 10 days.Lots of producers have already finished combining but those that still have crop left out in the field, I think with good weather over the next couple of days that should allow then to get lots of crop off.
In parts of the province there's moisture and even snow forecasted for over the weekend, Sunday Monday sort of thing, so I expect producers to be working hard over the next couple of days to get the rest of the crop off before those conditions hit.

Masich says, as farmers complete the harvest, they'll be transitioning to other fall work, including fixing up equipment, spraying for weeds, harrowing, applying anhydrous ammonia and baling straw and moving livestock.