Manitoba Agriculture reports much of the province received welcome moisture over the past week along with heavy winds that caused some lodging and tornadoes that caused minimal damage.
Anne Kirk, a cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says we had seen dry conditions throughout much of the province though the summer but, due to precipitation over the past week, much of the province is now listed as optimal to wet with the exception of parts of the eastern and Interlake regions that are still dry or very dry.
Over the past week we did have precipitation throughout much of the province. Accumulations ranged from about six millimeters to upwards of 146 millimeters and that was in the Ethelbert area in the northwest. That was good news for some of our later crops like soybeans and corn.
Some of these storms did have heavy rains and strong winds which caused lodging in some areas and there were tornados that caused minimal damage that were confirmed in a few areas of the province as well. That moisture was great. It did pause harvest operations throughout the province but it was definitely welcome for some of those later seeded crops.
Harvest has started in winter wheat and fall rye and has been ongoing for the last couple of weeks and that would be throughout the province in winter wheat and fall rye. Yield estimates are very preliminary at this point. I’ve only heard estimates in the Interlake region. I don’t have estimates for the rest of the province.
For spring cereals, harvest has started for wheat and barley in the central and eastern regions and likely some limited harvest for wheat and barley in other parts of the province as well and we are seeing peas starting to be harvested as well. Right now, it would be winter wheat, fall rye, spring wheat, barley and peas that are starting to be harvested and, once conditions dry up, we will see harvest continue. We also had, mostly in the central region, some canola swathing as well.
~ Anne Kirk, Manitoba Agriculture
Kirk says, once conditions dry up, we’ll see a resumption of harvesting operations. She says, if environmental conditions remain favorable, we should see quite a bit of crop coming off the fields in the next week or so.
