Sask. producers wait for fields to dry as harvest continues

Wet weather is slowing down harvest this week and leaving farmers to keep busy with repairs and errands as they wait for the fields to dry.

The latest provincial crop report says 52 per cent of the harvest is combined and in the bin.

There was a steady stream of producers going through the doors at Peavey Mart in east Regina. Dean Reimer is actually a cattle farmer, but he’s still waiting for his fields to dry to cut green feed oats.

“It just makes it difficult to get work done before the snow flies,” he commented. “You can’t get on the fields and it makes everything a mess.”

Reimer says this weather is a good time to come to the city and pick up parts to make sure all the equipment is ready to go when the fields do dry out.

Down the street at Princess Auto, the parking lot was also full of farm trucks. Kelly Ashford farms near Unger, south of Weyburn. He isn’t bothered by the rain at all because he was lucky this year.

“We’re done harvest so it’s fine for us,” he said. “We were fortunate to get started early this spring and the weather was good during harvest. We just finished up on some flax over the weekend so we’re actually done.”

Ashford admitted it’s very different scenario this year after such a wet summer in 2014; he finished harvest a month ahead of last year.

“There’s a chunk in the south and the southeast that was probably ahead of some of the other areas,” he said.

Another farmer said he’s about half done harvest on his farm near Melville, and he’s not surprised to hear that’s the average for the province.

“I just came from Saskatoon. I was surprised at how much was left to do out that way. I thought there would be more done out that way, but it seems they’re even wetter than we are,” he said.

As the sun began to shine on Thursday afternoon, he said he definitely needs a few more days of dry weather.

“Probably a good week would make quite a difference,” he said. “There wouldn’t be much left if we got a good stretch of weather.”