Satellite maps of vegetative growth on the Prairies show the potential for a bumper crop if fields keep progressing as they have been.
Much of the western Prairies shows up as dark green in the maps, indicating much higher than normal vegetative growth.
“The warm weather we’ve had the last week or two has really helped push the crop along. You can almost hear it growing,” said Harry Brook, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture.
Moisture conditions are adequate or excessive in the province and the crop looks lush.
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“There’s a greater than normal percentage in the good to excellent category,” he said.
Grant McLean, a cropping management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, said there are also “lovely” looking crops in his province.
“We’re looking at an above normal harvest. Most producers are quite optimistic now,” he said.
Three-quarters of spring cereals, oilseeds and pulses are in good to excellent condition.
“That’s higher than what we would normally expect, certainly higher than we were a year ago.”
Three-quarters of the crop was in the fair to good category last year at this time.
The western side of the province is in particularly good shape.
“The crops are really advancing quite nicely,” McLean said.
Fields are also greening up in eastern Saskatchewan, although crops are about one week behind normal development.
“Even in parts of the southeast it’s really nice crop right up to the water’s edge,” he said.
There has also been a sudden turnaround in the fortunes of Manitoba’s crop.
“This heat has definitely helped things catch up very, very quickly,” said Anastasia Kubinec, oilseed crops specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.
“It really has been a real godsend for many producers in Manitoba.”
The heat gave the crop a boost to the point where development is close to normal and yield potential looks good after a terrible, waterlogged start to the season.
“Across the province, I think we should probably hit our average yields,” said Kubinec.
Brook said a bumper crop is not out of the question in the western Prairies.
“The potential is there. However, there’s a lot more challenges also this year.”
The disease risk is high this year because of the early-season rainfall and unusually high humidity levels.
Brook’s field scouting has discovered plenty of disease infecting the crop. He worries farmers are not paying enough attention to diseases such as sclerotinia, which was prevalent in last year’s canola crop.
“There’s not a lot of tracks in the fields, which means that guys have not sprayed for sclerotinia,” he said.
“Guys will think, ‘I’ve got a great crop coming, this is a 50 bushel crop.’ And then they might be disappointed with only a 30 or 35 bu. crop.”
Wheat is the best looking crop in the province, but there is a lot of rust and the lower canopy of many crops are infected with leaf diseases.
McLean said there is also insect and disease pressure in Saskatchewan
“We’re certainly getting more fungicide applied this year than we have historically,” he said.
Brook said the extent of disease damage will depend on the weather. It could get ugly if the damp trend continues, but it will be a different story if warm winds replace the humidity.
Then we’re tickety-boo right through to harvest,” he said.
