Farmers unable to make much progress due to weather: weekly crop report

Hardly any progress was made on harvest over the last week by Saskatchewan farmers thanks to snow and heavy rain.

The unfavourable weather prevented some producers from getting on their field. Dustin Klym has been stalled for the last two weeks on his land northwest of Regina.

“It seems here you’re always waiting on the weather,” he said.

He guessed they’re about 85 per cent finished harvest, which is ahead of the provincial average. Saskatchewan Agriculture reports 81 per cent of the crop is combined, up slightly from the 80 per cent completion reported the week before. In addition, 15 per cent of the crop is swathed or ready to straight-cut.

The southeast region is the furthest along at 89 per cent of crop in the bin, followed by the southwest at 85 per cent. The west-central region is the furthest behind, having 73 per cent combined.

However, many farmers are still a touch behind the five-year average of 93 per cent for this time of year.

Klym said they can shift their efforts to other areas of their operation while they wait to get back onto the field. He explained they also produce and sell seed so their focus can be switched there for now.

Conducting equipment maintenance is also an option as they wait for things to dry out after getting several inches of moisture, both rain and snow, over the last week on land that was already saturated to begin with.

“Everybody’s wet. Obviously some guys are farther along than others. It’s something that you can’t get mad at anymore, you can’t get frustrated. It’s just the way it is,” he conceded.

While it may be hard to predict the weather, Klym and his partners at the farm, which he called a family-corporate operation, are trying to mitigate any risks their crops may be faced with in the future.

“We’re making decisions for next year already to try to speed up our planting seasons,” he outlined, adding if they finish seeding sooner they can then do more harvest in August and September since it seems like the last half of September and all of October are wildcards for temperature and moisture.

Sask Ag said many fields around the province are still very wet, so harvest will likely continue to be slow once farmers do get back out. While the forecast is a little more favourable in the immediate future, it could take a few days yet for land to dry out.

“We’re still victims of mother nature and at the end of the game you can throw as much money and as much management experience or whatever you want at the situation but at the end of the day we still answer to the weather,” said Klym.