Manitoba Agriculture released its latest weekly crop report on Tuesday, offering a snapshot of harvest progress and crop conditions across the province. Cereal crop specialist Anne Kirk, who is compiling the reports this month, says harvest operations are moving forward despite recent weather challenges.
"Things are going well so far," said Kirk. "We did have precipitation occurring across the province over this past week, so a range of accumulations. Some areas in each region got very little, but others received quite a bit - Portage la Prairie saw about 111 millimeters, which did cause a pause in harvest operations.
Despite the rain, we did see an increase in harvest completion. Provincially, farmers now have ten per cent of the crop in the bin, up from four per cent the previous week.
The winter cereal harvest is 80 to 95 per cent complete in the Interlake, Eastern, Central, and Southwest regions, with winter wheat yields ranging from 50 to 80 bushels per acre, and fall rye 60 to 110.
Kirk says the spring wheat harvest is at 18 per cent across Manitoba, with average yields of 50 to 60 bushels per acre. Oats are about 10 per cent harvested, with early yield estimates between 100 and 150 bushels per acre. Barley yields are averaging 60 to 70 bushels per acre. Field peas have seen significant progress, with 65 per cent of the crop harvested and yields averaging 60 bushels per acre. Canola harvest has just begun in the Central and Eastern regions and are currently sitting at about one per cent complete.
Crop quality is also looking promising. "For the cereal crops that have come off, we’ve heard low levels of Fusarium," Kirk said. "So crop quality is looking really good."
Kirk noted that with the recent rains, pasture conditions have improved, so that’s good news for producers who really need those additional grazing days.
Manitoba Agriculture's Weekly Crop Report can be found here.