Alberta farmers have wrapped up 94 percent of their major crop harvest.
Producers in the south are still waiting on sugar beets and some specialty acres, while others had to pause due to rainy conditions and tough canola.
It was a good year for potato farmers in the province.
Terence Hochstein, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta, said seed and fresh potato farmers both had excellent crops with above average yields, but it’s too early to tell for chip and fry farmers.
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Many producers said they had moisture for the first time in a number of years and weren’t harvesting dry, he said.
Yields for all potato producers are usually 400 100-weight bags per acre, but this year Hochstein estimates that they will be around 405. However, it’s still early for an exact number.
Excess potato crops are not worth harvesting for many producers, but leaving them in the ground is an option.
“If you don’t have a home for it, and you’re going to end up getting rid of it, why not put the nutrients back,” said Hochstein.
“That’s kind of the message that we try and go to our growers. It’s not where you thought it could have been, but why waste it?”
Canola harvest in Alberta sits at slightly more than 87 percent complete, while oats are at 90 percent. Dry conditions in Alberta are causing concern for fall-seeded crops with the poorest areas for soil moisture in the province’s south and central regions.
Provincial pasture conditions have been rated at 40 percent poor, 40 percent fair and 17 percent good with no fields in excellent condition.
Rainy conditions left Manitoba producers with little to do but wait. Even sitting at 86 percent complete, producers are ahead of the five-year average of 81 percent.
With only seven percent complete across the province, grain corn producers continue to wait for crops to dry down with 15 percent harvested in the central and western regions and 10 percent in the Interlake region.
Morgan Cott, agronomy extension specialist for special crops with the Manitoba Crop Alliance, said most farmers are sitting at 20 percent moisture and have time left to wait before they pay to dry it themselves.
This past week saw milder temperatures, so Cott is hopeful farmers will be back in their fields and have more success with the corn harvest. After 25 millimetres of rain, soil has dried up enough that fields are passable, she said.
Cott said yields are averaging out with some farmers reporting 80 to 200 bushels per acre in the same field.
Manitoba canola growers are sitting at 87 percent complete in conditions ranging from fair to mostly good. Forty percent of flax has been harvested in the province and 73 percent of soybeans.
Corn silage harvest in eastern Manitoba is nearly complete and yield reports are good. Beef producers have also had a chance for a second cut on grass and alfalfa stands.
Recent rainfall has meant some green in pastureland. Cattle farmers in Manitoba have been moving cattle to fenced fields for regrowth and stubble grazing.
Mustard farmers in Saskatchewan were reporting 99 percent complete during the previous week’s crop report.
Rick Mitzel, executive director of Sask Mustard, said yields have been poor this year across Western Canada, but the increase in the number of acres should make up for the shortfall. Farmers planted 600,000 acres of mustard, up from 500,000 last year and 350,000 the year before that.
Mitzel estimated that 20 percent of the acres are in Alberta, a small percentage in Manitoba and Saskatchewan making up the rest.
This week’s crop report information is based on crop statistics as of Oct. 10-11 depending on the provincial recording time. No report was released from Saskatchewan with a final report due for publication Oct. 20. Harvest reporting will continue in Manitoba and Alberta with some late stage crops still in the fields.
