The Alberta harvest gained momentum this past week, with progress on all crops nearing the halfway mark.
Friday’s provincial crop report pegged the harvest of all crops at 43% complete as of Tuesday, still well behind the five- and 10-year averages of 76% and 60%, respectively. The harvest of major crops (spring wheat, oats, barley, canola, and peas) was reported at 39% done as of Tuesday, up from 23% a week earlier.
Drier conditions helped accelerate fieldwork, with dry pea harvest advancing 8 percentage points to 91% complete. Spring wheat jumped 22 points to 43%, barley gained 21 points to 61%, oats rose 17 points to 24% and canola increased 11 points to 15%. Canola swathing reached 38%, up 6 points on the week.
The South remains the most advanced region at 63% complete, followed by Central at 44%. The North East and North West are both at 29%, while the Peace Region is 23% complete.
Provincial dryland yield estimates (as of Tuesday) are mixed compared with Statistics Canada’s September projections. Alberta Agriculture pegs spring wheat at 53.4 bu/acre, below StatsCan’s 55.9, while canola is estimated at 37.5 bu/acre, versus 41.2 for StatsCan. Oats show the largest gap, with the province estimating 76 bu/acre, well below StatsCan’s 90.8.
In contrast, Alberta’s barley estimate of 72.2 bu/acre is slightly above StatsCan’s 71.6, while dry peas are pegged at 42.8 bu/acre, compared with 42.2 from StatsCan.
Despite some regional variation, provincial dryland yields for major crops are estimated at 20% above the five-year average and 9% above the 10-year average. The South is running 56% above its five-year yield average, while the North West is 12% below.
Crop quality is generally holding up well. About 64% of hard red spring wheat is rated No. 1 C.W., above the 10-year average of 57%, while 90% of canola is rated No. 1 Canada, close to the 89% average.
Surface soil moisture was rated 74% good to excellent, down 2 points from last week but still well above historical norms.
The full Alberta crop report is available here:
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9af5b54d-f334-46ca-a0b1-23e560edb353/resource/56b2d7ca-3aef-45f3-95c1-54ade2ecb064/download/agi-tedab-alberta-crop-report-2026-09-22.pdf
