Mountain View County producers probably need at least a couple more weeks of dry weather to complete the harvest, which is already behind schedule due to wet conditions over the past several months, says Grant Lastiwka, with Alberta Agriculture in Olds.
“Right now I think almost every producer has some crops still out,” said Lastiwka. “If not it would be the odd exception. A lot of it is canola and it doesn't take as much for that to dry. Everybody is hoping that we are going to get a bit of good weather to turn this around. I think pretty much all producers still have come crops out.
“It's mostly canola that are standing as producers try to leave it and let it dry better by doing so. I think we've got a mix of some crops that the snow did push down depending on where you are in this county, because it's quite diverse in terms of how much snow areas had across the county.”
The cereal grain harvest in the region is well behind the five-year average, principally because of wet summer weather and its impact on operations, the Mountain View County agricultural services board heard at its recent meeting.
Regionally the harvest is 14 per cent behind schedule, and provincially 17 per cent.
Not helping the situation is the fact that ground conditions are not ideal in some areas right now, he said.
“There is challenge of some ground being wet. It did slow some people down in spots. Machinery can't go through all mud conditions. There are a variety of challenges out there,” he said.
“The materials that are swathed and are on the ground are going to be more of a challenge to dry.”
Asked how much good weather is needed to get district crops in, he said, “We are going to need quite a bit of warm and dry weather and that comes based on knowing some of the challenges we've had already as we were dealing with some wet soil conditions,
“We need a couple weeks at least I'd think. At this time of year you don't expect to be dealing with 25 degrees Celsius. You are maybe hoping for 15, 20 tops.
“It is more difficult to predict how long is going to be needed other than there is a need for at least another couple of weeks of drying weather for all the crops and livestock feed to be put up. One week will probably be needed just to get these crops being able to be combined.”
