Alberta’s harvest continued to advance this past week, but progress remained well behind normal as weekend showers and cool temperatures kept combines out of fields and raised concerns about grain quality.
Provincially, harvest of the five major crops (spring wheat, oats, barley, canola and peas) reached 18% complete as of Tuesday, up from 10% a week earlier, according to Friday’s weekly provincial crop report. That remained far behind the five-year average of 40% and the 10-year average of 30%
For all crops, harvest was 21% complete as of Tuesday.
Regional major crop harvest was most advanced in the South at 40%, followed by Central at 22%, Peace at 8%, and the North East and North West at 6% each.
Spring wheat was 14% harvested provincially, barley 34%, oats 8%, canola 2% and dry peas 72%.
Despite the slow harvest, yield prospects remain strong, the report said. Provincial major-crop yields are estimated at 19% above the five-year average, little changed from 20% above average in late August. The South is projected 58% above average, Central 23% above, North East 2% above, Peace 10% above, while the North West is projected 9% below its five-year average.
Current dryland yield estimates include 60 bu/acre for spring wheat, 71 for barley, 74 for oats, 37 for canola and 43 for dry peas.
Quality has generally held up well so far, with durum, barley, canola and dry peas rated above their five-year averages. However, continued wet weather is increasing concerns about bleaching, sprouting and other quality losses, the report said.
Surface soil moisture improved sharply, with 74% rated good to excellent, up 18 points from the previous week. The South improved to 88% good to excellent, while excessive moisture increased further in the North West.
The full report is available here:
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9af5b54d-f334-46ca-a0b1-23e560edb353/resource/b608362b-04ad-4b26-9ca9-fe01a1b8a849/download/agi-tedab-alberta-crop-report-2026-09-11.pdf
