High winds over the Thanksgiving weekend rolled swaths across fields and toppled grain bins.
Winds blew into Alberta late Saturday and continued into Saskatchewan and Manitoba over the following two days knowing out power lines and creating havoc across the Prairies.
Shannon Friesen, cropping management specialist said the high winds rolled crops around, shelled standing crops, blew shingles off buildings and toppled grain bins.
“Most of the swaths out there were canola,” said Friesen, of Moose Jaw.
Only about 10 percent of the crop is remaining in the field, most in central and northern Alberta.
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Friesen isn’t sure how much canola was knocked out of the standing and swathed canola onto the ground.
In Manitoba, about 90 percent of the crops south of Highway 1 had been harvested and damaged to crops was limited, said Amir Farooq, farm production extension specialist in Hamiota.
“There’s not much loss,” said Farooq.
Most of the remaining grain, sunflower and soybeans weathered the storm.
Reports of bins being toppled and power lines down along the western border were reported over the weekend.
Paul Wipf, of Viking estimates about 25 percent of the seed in the standing canola was shelled out because of the high winds.
Alberta Agriculture officials were unavailable for comment.
