Storms bring moisture, some hail and wind damage to crops

Farmers across Saskatchewan took the good with the bad over the last week of wild weather.

The weekly provincial crop report shows storms brought badly-needed rainfall, but also caused some hail and wind damage.

Rainfall totals ranged from trace amounts up to 103 mm in the Glaslyn area. Turtleford saw 61 mm of rain, Saskatoon 52 mm, Shaunavon 48 mm, Broadview 18 mm and Lumsden only got 10 mm.

Farmers in southwest and west-central Saskatchewan still need to see significant rainfall to improve the crops.

The vast majority of crops are rated fair to excellent, but conditions vary across the province based on moisture levels which are ranging mainly between adequate and short with only a few areas reporting a surplus.

High temperatures and severe winds continue to put stress on crops including some reports of heat blasting in flowering canola crops. There are also reports of high numbers of grasshoppers in certain areas, along with diseases such as fusarium head blight, root rots and leaf spot diseases.

Livestock producers have cut about 22 per cent of the hay crop across the province. The quality is rated mainly good or fair, but the swaths are smaller than normal and hay yields are below average.