Alberta’s harvest continued to lag well behind normal this past week as cool, wet weather limited combining across much of the province.
The latest Alberta crop report on Friday showed the harvest of major crops (spring wheat, oats, barley, canola and dry peas) at 23% complete as of Tuesday, up just 5 percentage points from the previous week. That remains far behind the five-year average of 58% and the 10-year average of 43%.
Progress was most advanced in the South, where 46% of major crops had been harvested, followed by the Central Region at 29%. The Peace Region was 13% complete, while the North West and North East lagged at 9% and 8%, respectively.
Dry peas remain furthest along at 83% harvested provincially, followed by barley at 40%. Spring wheat was 21% complete, oats 7% and canola just 4%. Canola harvest remains well behind its five-year average of 28%.
Frequent showers left some areas in the South, Central and North East with little or no harvest progress during the week, the report said.
Producers advanced canola swathing by 13 percentage points and also used desiccation to encourage dry-down amid concerns about second growth and weeds.
Crop quality is becoming a bigger concern as the wet pattern persists. Reports of sprouting, disease and canola dockage are increasing, while some cereals are being harvested tough, particularly in the North East and North West, the report added. Producers with grain dryers and aerated storage are harvesting where conditions allow.
The persistent moisture has, however, improved soil conditions. Provincial surface soil moisture was rated 76% good to excellent, up 3 points from the previous week and well above the five-year average of 36% and 10-year average of 48%. Soil moisture across the province was reported at 6% excessive, with the North West the highest at about 19%.
The Peace Region had the strongest moisture rating at 91% good to excellent, followed by the South at 84%, North West at 79%, North East at 70% and Central at 65%.
The full report is available here:
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9af5b54d-f334-46ca-a0b1-23e560edb353/resource/584efcbd-df30-4a22-b912-6260745c6fa4/download/agi-tedab-alberta-crop-report-2026-09-15-abbreviated-report.pdf
