When Case Slingerland combined his irrigated canola crop Sept. 2, the yield monitor in his combine sometimes jumped to more than 100 bushels per acre.
“I’d be a little bit disappointed if it doesn’t go 90 bu. (on average),” said Slingerland of Picture Butte, Alta.
A few days earlier the southern Alberta farmer combined another canola crop that was only partly irrigated and it averaged 74 bu. an acre.
“It will give me a nice tidy profit,” said Slingerland, who added he has never been afraid to put fertilizer on the crop. He even put fertilizer through the irrigation pivots mid season.
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When the final figures came in, the second field grown under pivot irrigation averaged 78 bu., a drop he blames on a rain half way through harvest that reduced yield by at least 10 bu. per acre.
“It knocked a whole bunch out of the swath. It was a drastic difference,” said Slingerland of the crop harvested before and after the rainstorm.
His other crops have also done well under irrigation. His barley crop went about 140 bu. per acre, winter wheat yielded about 100 bu. and peas yielded about the same.
While not all producers can expect yields like Slingerland’s irrigated crops, there are still some good crops in the province, said Rob Saik, with Agri-Trend Network, which helps guide producers in raising high-yielding crops.
Lynette Steuber of Stony Plain, Alta., said there are plenty of good crops in her area, but the trick is getting them harvested.
“There’s good crops if we can ever get them off,” said Steuber, an Agri-Trend agrologist.
Steuber estimated barley is averaging 100 bu. per acre, canola 40-50 and wheat 70-75 bu.
Steady rains over the past three weeks have hampered attempts at harvest. Some canola has been swathed for three weeks and will be ready to harvest as soon as the fields dry.
“The farmers are pretty anxious. They want to get going.”
In the Peace River area, steady rain since Aug. 20 has put harvest plans on hold. It has rained 50-150 millimetres since mid-August. Despite the rain, Dean Giles, operations manager with Cargill in Rycroft, said the crops are average to above average in many parts of the region.
“The bushels are there. The quality, we’ll have to see,” said Giles.
