In Saskatchewan, most crops are still one to two weeks behind normal in development, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture's Crop Report for the week ending July 26.

Although warmer temperatures helped crop development, many parts of the province also received unwelcome hail and/or large amounts of rain.

Cropland topsoil moisture was rated as 29% surplus, 68% adequate and just 3% short, as of Monday.

Province wide, Saskatchewan producers have 66% of the hay crop cut and 38% baled or put into silage.

According to today’s provincial crop report, 77% of the spring wheat in the province was in fair to good condition as of Monday, down a single point from a week earlier. Durum went the other way, moving up 1 percentage point to 83% fair to good. Oats held steady from the previous week at 78% fair to good, while barley slid 3 points to 76%.

Flax was down 1 point to 80% fair to good. Across the province, canola came in at 71% fair to good, which was in line with last week.

As for pulse and special crops, lentils and canaryseed lost 4 points each at 77% and 78% fair to good, respectively. On the other hand, chickpeas shot up 7 percentage point to 97% fair to good. Mustard rose 1 point to 81% fair to good.

Taking a closer look at the northeastern region – one of the hardest hit by wet weather – the report said “field work continues to be a challenge. Farmers are trying to cultivate deeply rutted fields. Crop reporters indicate there are a few farmers with last year’s swaths still out in the fields.”

The canola crop in the northeastern region was rated 35% very poor to poor as of Monday, down from 42% a week earlier. However, the flax crop deteriorated, with 20% rated very poor to poor versus 18% the previous week.

In the southwestern part of the province, crops are doing much better, but ratings did generally come down compared to last week. For canola, 81% of the crop was rated good to excellent, down from 88% a week earlier, while chickpeas slid to 79% good to excellent from 85% just a week earlier.

The majority of crop damage across Saskatchewan this past week was caused by flooding, insects and hail. Wheat midge and grasshoppers are also causing damage.

Farmers are busy haying, scouting fields and controlling crop diseases and insects, concluded the report.