Saskatchewan farmers took advantage of the warm dry weather to get back on their fields last week after having harvest delayed by snow and cold temperatures early in the month.
The provincial crop report showed harvest is 92 per cent complete, up from 82 per cent last week. Overall, harvest still remains just behind the five-year average of 94 per cent for this time of year.
Producers in the southwest region remain the farthest ahead on the harvest with 97 per cent of the crop in the bin.
“We’ve got sun and it’s pretty nice out, we have finally finished flax, so things are moving along nicely,” said Megs Reynolds, who farms in the southwest near Kyle.
She said they still have a few days left to get the rest of the crop off, but so far the harvest is looking pretty good for them.
“Thanks to the lack of moisture we actually had really good quality. We didn’t have disease or anything in there so quality is good, the yields were just down.”
Farmers in the southeast and northeast regions are close behind with 95 per cent of the crop combined. The west central region is at 90 per cent while the east central region is at 89 per cent.
Adrienne Ivey has a mixed cattle and grain farm west of Yorkton near Ituna. She said they are getting close to putting a check mark above the mega-project of harvest.
“Every single day we have another neighbor that finishes up, so it’s really nice to see guys being able to get everything off,” she said.
The northwest region was lagging the farthest behind at the start of this harvest season, but producers were busy making progress this week with 82 per cent of the crop now combined.
While many grain producers may be able to wrap up the mega-project of harvest in the next few days, others will need about a week of good weather to finish.
Many crops are still coming off the fields quite tough and are being placed in dryers where they are available, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
— With files from CKOM’s Brent Bosker