Eastend, Sask., farmer Greg Lundsten is feeling lucky after missing a prairie storm that dumped as much as 186 millimetres of rain over the weekend.
He received only 25 mm of rain in his district where most farmers are nearing the end of their harvest.
“We’ve been very dry and very lucky, we’ve been pretty fortunate,” he said of the 2005 harvest season in southwestern Saskatchewan.
Farther north around Saskatoon and Humboldt, farmers have not been so lucky with recent weather.
Joey Perrot reported hail and heavy rain around his farm at Spalding, where five inch (125 mm) rain gauges were overflowing.
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Lines of swathed crops poked above lakes of water in many fields, idle cultivators sank into the mud and roadside ditches were full.
Perrot doesn’t expect to get back into his fields before the weekend, putting harvest further behind.
“We just barely started with combining,” he said. “We still have crops standing.”
Most years, Perrot would be half done by now, but 375 mm of rain in August and September have slowed his progress.
Back at Lundsten’s farm, the area had showers late in August but few other slowdowns were reported until this weekend. The season has given him a “decent” crop of durum, peas, lentils, canola and malt barley.
Yields are down from last fall, but quality is better, he said, noting the area escaped the frost felt in other parts of the province in August 2004.
Crop quality has suffered marginally, with durum bleaching and dropping down to No. 2.
Peas are coming into the bins in excellent shape with average to slightly above average yields and the lentils look good, he said.
Hay got off to a slow start but will still produce about 70 percent of last year’s yield.
Like Perrot, Tony Engelberts is experiencing frequent delays this fall.
He said his family rarely gets more than two to three days of work in each week before showers fall on the farm east of Saskatoon.
“The rest of the time we’re waiting for things to dry out,” he said.
Engelberts has been trying to get peas off since mid-August.
“Peas should have been in three weeks ago so things are getting a little tense for us,” he said.
“The potential for a good grade keeps dropping and dropping.”
A sudden bout of hot weather could also turn good quality crops into feed grade.
Engelberts has produced malting barley for the last 12 years, but said spotting on this year’s crop could jeopardize that and drop the price from an anticipated $4 per bushel down to $1.50.
Canola is thriving, he said, taking advantage of the cool wet weather to continue to mature.
He, like Perrot, hoped to get back on the combine later this week, depending on the weather.
While there are no major weather systems on the horizon for this week, Bob Cormier of Environment Canada said to expect variable weather, scattered showers and cool temperatures.
Frost is possible but more likely to turn into fog due to the amount of moisture in heavy rainfall areas.
Areas hardest hit by rain last weekend included central Saskatchewan and areas south of Red Deer in Alberta. The Calgary area received about 90 mm, with the foothills getting 100 mm and Pincher Creek receiving 186 mm.
Rosetown and Saskatoon saw 60-70 mm, areas north of Saskatoon got up to 100 while Melfort had 50 mm. Manitoba’s grain growing belt escaped the heavy rains, with most falling in northern zones.
“Eastern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba were spared,” Cormier said.
