August 4, 2015 – CORRECTION: The crop in the photo above was originally misidentified as wheat.
BRANDON — South of Winnipeg the wheat looked good.
And it looked good as we drove west from St. Malo, through Morris, down through Winkler and up the escarpment and west into southwestern Manitoba.
Wheat everywhere surveyed and estimated on the Manitoba leg of the three-pronged, CWB-led 2015 Western Canadian crop tour looked good, with no bad fields found.
That was also true of the other crops checked, although wheat was this tour’s focus and the other crops checked less diligently.
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“It looked fantastic,” said one analyst as we drove away from one spring wheat crop that has a high yield potential and few obvious problems.
“Another big one,” agreed a CWB staffer in the car.
After the next field was checked, a few dozen kilometers west, the conclusion was the same.
“Another good one.”
“Keeps getting better.”
Using square foot measures, head and kernel counts the tour found fields with yield potential of 75 bushels per acre, 71, 78, 98 (winter), 116 (Pasteur), 89 and 63.
That isn’t a prediction or projection for the actual yields that will occur, but an estimation of what those crops would yield if everything goes perfectly for the rest of the season, which is unlikely.
But what was remarkable was the lack of big problems in any of the wheat crops checked. Fusarium did not seem to be widespread, showing up only on the edge of one field and hints of it in another.
Other disease problems were not evident.
Insects also did not seem to be making a major impact.
Soybean crops checked were good but did not appear to be stellar. While one was excellent, some others passed seemed patchy and one surveyed had serious iron chlorosis problems.
The canola fields looked good as well. The early canola fields done flowering seemed to have excellent yield potential, while the later, re-seeded ones look good but will need both cool temperatures while flowering and freedom from frost until late in the harvest season.
There were no big surprises or shocks on the Winnipeg to Brandon leg of the CWB cross-Prairie tour, and that was probably the most optimistic element of the journey: if farmers get decent weather in this region, they’ll end up with a good crop.
Contact ed.white@producer.com
