The Manitoba harvest is progressing in line with the five-year average, with the bulk of the headway being made in the province’s Central Region.
Tuesday’s provincial crop report pegged the overall Manitoba harvest at 3% done. The Central Region was leading the way at 5% complete, followed by the Southwest at 3%, and the Northwest and Interlake regions at 2%. The Eastern Region was bringing up the rear at 1% done.
The winter wheat and fall rye harvests were both reported at 67% complete. Early reports are putting winter wheat yields from 50 to 65 bu/acre and fall rye in the 60 to 90 bu/acre range. Peas were estimated at about 22% harvested across the province, followed by spring wheat at 5%, and oats and barley at less than 1% each. No canola was yet reported harvested.
Early pea yield reports in the Southwest and Central regions are in the 45 to 55 bu/acre range. Crop desiccation is ongoing. Most of the pea crop remains in good condition, but in drier areas fields are in fair condition and demonstrating lower yield potential, the report said.
Rated in mostly fair to good condition, spring cereal crops are mostly in the hard dough stage, with pre-harvest desiccation and swathing starting. Corn fields ranged from the R2 (blister) to the R4 (dough) stages, with the most advanced fields at early R5 (dent).
Most of the canola crop is in the early to late pod fill stage, with colour change noted on earlier seeded canola. Swathing and pre-harvest applications have started on the earliest seeded fields.
All Manitoba agricultural areas received precipitation between August 7 and 13, with values ranging from 4.9 mm to 68.9 mm, the report said, with the majority of the precipitation in the past eight days seen in the Northwest and Central regions.
Pastures are greening up in some areas as a result of recent rainfall, and grazing sites will be in a better position to sustain herds. Beef producers have largely completed the first cut of hay, with second cut starting in some areas. Second cut yields are reported as below average due to low rainfall, but are variable.
Southwest:
A welcome rain over the week to most of the Southwest will help crop fill and was very important for the soybean crop as well as pasture land and second cut for hay crops. Harvest in most areas had stopped due to the rainfall. As the fields dry, producers will be back in the field continuing pea, winter wheat and fall rye harvest and pre harvest applications for cereal crops. In general, crops look average but the recent rain will help early crops fill and later seeded crops progress.
Fall rye and winter wheat harvest is pretty general in the southern portion of the region and yields look to be average with good quality. Some reports of ergot showing up in fall rye.
Pea crops are being desiccated and spraying will be completed this week. Harvest has begun in most areas. Rain might make harvest a little more difficult with the wetter ground. Pea crops look to be an average yield around 45 to 50 bu/acre and good quality.
Some harvest of early seeded wheat fields began last week before the rains.
Northwest
A warm start to the week and then a change to cool, wet weather up until the weekend. Rain set in mid-week and a couple of days of scattered showers brought varied precipitation amounts. Dauphin weather station receiving the most at 49 mm and Swan River the least at 5 mm, with some heavier localized amounts near Roblin. Alonsa had the highest daytime temperature last week at 27.7°C while Rorketon had the coolest over night temperature at 3.4°C. Although the rain was welcome across the region due to recent dry conditions, it also posed a slight delay in pre-harvest applications and some harvest operations.
Fall rye and winter wheat harvest began over the weekend in most of the region. Harvest in the Dauphin and Swan Valley area is approximately 90% complete. Perennial ryegrass harvest also began last week and is mostly complete. Yields are unknown at this time.
Spring cereals are mostly in the hard dough stage, with some later seeded fields in the soft dough stage. Pre-harvest applications have been ongoing as stages are reached. Dependant on weather conditions, harvest may begin this week.
Central
The week was cooler with a number of showers passing through the central region. The amount of rain these showers brought varied greatly, with some locations such as Austin and Carman receiving 61 mm and 50 mm of rainfall, respectively. Most locations received closer to 20 to 30 mm of rainfall, with Gretna receiving the least with 10 mm. This moisture has been well received by corn, soybean, sunflower and edible bean producers. The rain delayed harvest for winter cereals, spring cereals and peas, and in some extreme cases of heavy rain, resulted in some lodging of cereals and flax.
Approximately 80% of winter wheat and 75% of fall rye has been harvested. It is expected that almost all remaining winter cereals will be harvested over the coming week. Fall rye yields have varied greatly depending on how much rainfall the crop received this year, with most yields in the region of 60 to 90 bushels per acre, but some yielding as low as 30 bushels per acre. Winter wheat yields are around 60 bushels per acre.
Harvest of spring wheat, barley and oats is underway, with most crops now at the hard dough stage.
Eastern
Rainfall accumulations ranged from less than 5 mm to as much as 37 mm. Most areas received the bulk of their rainfall on Thursday and Friday last week in events that ranged from drizzle all the way to thunderstorms with heavy downpours. The rain limited progress on harvesting, swathing, pre-harvest applications and with the dry down of cereals and field peas. Day and night time temperatures remained below seasonal only starting to move towards seasonal ranges on the weekend. In spite of operational delays, most producers viewed the additional rainfall as supportive of yield in canola, soybeans, sunflowers and corn. Producers look to make progress on swathing, pre-harvest applications and cereal and field pea harvesting this week, if the weather is supportive.
Harvesting of winter wheat and fall rye continued at the start of last week until rainfall occurred with about 70% and 50% of acres harvested, respectively. Harvest completion in the coming week is anticipated if weather is conducive. Yield reports on winter wheat continued to average around 65 bu/acre.
Spring cereal crops were somewhere in the intermediate to hard dough stage.
Interlake
Harvest continues but with minimal delays following recent rains. Precipitation continues to be extremely variable with scattered thundershowers. Riverton received 68.9 mm of rain in the past week and Gimli received 35.1 mm, but most of the region received less than 20 mm. Hail damage has been reported in the North Interlake areas of Steeprock, Vidir, and Riverton, but damage is variable across the region. Later maturing crops have benefited from the recent rain fall.
Winter wheat and fall rye harvest is about 90% and 80% complete, respectively Winter wheat yields reported to date are in the 50 to 65 bu/ac range. Fall rye yields reported to date range from 60 to 100 bu/acre. Spring cereals are maturing rapidly, with pre harvest applications and swathing ongoing. Harvest has just started in spring cereals, and should be widespread by next week if weather conditions are favourable.
Canola is in the pod fill stage in most fields, with late seeded and re seeded canola still flowering and starting to pod. Reseeded canola is looking good in fields that have received adequate rainfall. Soybeans
have seen tremendous growth with heat and moisture.
