Producers looking for dry weather

Producers in the region are in need of a stretch of dry weather to get the harvest back on track, says Grant Lastiwka, with Alberta Agriculture in Olds.

Lastiwka gives regular updates on agricultural conditions in the region to the Mountain View County agricultural service board. Although the scheduled Sept. 17 ag service board meeting was cancelled, Lastiwka was able to give an update in a phone interview.

Wet weather starting in early September put the brakes on the harvest of many crops in the region, he said.

“We are getting moisture quite late and with that it has certainly halted the harvest of cereals, oilseeds, pulses and even areas where they did have hay crops not yet off,” said Lastiwka, a forage extension specialist.

“It’s something in the range of 16 to 20 per cent completed in this area.”

According to the latest Alberta Agriculture crop report for the region, 41 per cent of crops are still standing, 27 per cent swathed and 32 per cent combined, up three per cent from the five-year average of 29 per cent.

About 21 per cent of canola is in the bin, compared to the five-year average of 24 per cent, with another 43 per cent swathed.

About 98 per cent of dry peas, 53 per cent of spring wheat, 51 per cent of barley and 33 per cent of oats are either in swath or the bin.

Asked how much dry weather producers will need to get the remainder of the crops in, he said, “Depending on which crops and how long they have been down, they are going to need winds and dry weather for a prolonged period in order to get the harvest off and going again. The hours of daylight and the winds are two things that affect the length of time in the day that people can combine.

“They have got some harvest in already of some of the earlier crops and that is below average for the harvest percentage for this time of year.”

Although there has been frost across the region, some crops may still be maturing, he said.

“We have crops that need to have more maturity,” he said. “And depending on the degrees of frost in different areas, there is still potential for some to advance. So far we’ve had varying degrees of frost and it hasn’t been that everything is frozen.

“With a pocket in Mountain View County that hit minus 8 to minus 10, that definitely froze everything there. I’m of the opinion that there might be areas that have escaped a hard frost for the type of crop that maybe did survive.

“We’d be looking at cereals and areas where they had in fact less low pockets of land and might have even had some moisture cover to mitigate the frost severity.”

In his latest six-date report, Ralph Wright with Alberta Agrometerolgy Applications and Modelling Unit of Alberta Agriculture, said, “Generally frosts were lighter across the east half of the province with most areas staying above the -2°C mark.   West of Highway 2 from Olds all the way up to Grande Prairie, overnight lows dipped to -5°C in many locations.”