Manitoba has seen its fields dry out and warm up over the week as the harvest season is pushing closer and closer.
Manitoba Agriculture Cereal Crops Specialist Anne Kirk says they're even seeing harvest kick-off in a couple of areas.
"Over the last week, we've had sort of a drier and warmer seven days and we are seeing quite a bit of drying down and crops such as fall rye, winter wheat, and barley. So we have seen harvest starting on the earliest winter wheat and fall rye fields and also a bit of harvest starting on barley as well with some reports of some swathing on other cereal fields like oats, so we are seeing you know quite a bit of dry down in heat and probably a big push towards harvest this week as well."
While dry weather has been moving into the area moisture levels are still staying strong for the province and some rain did fall Wednesday and Thursday. Temperatures were much cooler as well.
"Last week was a drier week with not a lot of precipitation, but some scattered rainfall. So throughout this season, we have seen precipitation more than 100 per cent of normal throughout the whole growing season. But now with the soil moisture we're seeing optimal or dry soil and moisture conditions at the surface depths especially in the southwest and Northwest regions, hearing some reports of some drier pastures and the rain definitely needed to rejuvenate some of those pastures.
Crops apart from cereals are progressing well with many crops beginning to ripen.
"For canola, we are seeing the crops and pod fill to an early ripening stage, and some report of some swathing occurring. Sunflowers range with most sunflowers are about 30 per cent flowering and flax fields are in the late flowering stage or leaves starting to yellow. For pulses, we are seeing fieldpea starting to change colour and then some of those later growth stages. The majority of soybeans are in the beginning pod stage."
Kirk says that hay yields are doing well with many producers reporting second cuts during the 2024 haying season.