Ron Krahn, a Manitoba canola farmer, beat the rain last week as he finished up his last few acres and called harvest 2023 officially over.
He described the season as better than expected with yields tied for best ever on his farm near Rivers, Man.
“We had some substantial hail this year on about half the canola, I guess,” he said.
“Thankfully, hail came very early on, and so canola, being a very resilient plant, came back and in the end did quite well.”
He said the industry could do better at estimating canola yields.
“There’s room to improve on how we estimate yields so that we don’t over-exaggerate what we think is poor weather during the growing season.”
Clint Jurke, agronomy director with the Canola Council of Canada, said it waits until the end of the season before announcing yields, but what he’s seen so far has been a wide range, even within the same crop.
“It was small, isolated showers that would move through that could make a huge difference to yield differences between fields that are almost side by side, or even within fields,” he said.
“The amount of variability that we’re hearing of the crop within a given field is higher than what we would normally see in other years.”
In Manitoba, canola is 86 percent harvested with yields ranging from 20 to 60 bushels per acre. Conditions are ranging from fair to mostly good, according to the Manitoba crop report.
In Saskatchewan, canola, soybean and flax acres are mostly what’s left to be harvested. Canola is 90 percent complete and soybean and flax are 68 percent finished.
“Producers who still have flax standing are hoping for a frost to help stop the regrowth that is occurring due to the recent rainfall,” the Saskatchewan crop report said.
“In their favour, there were several killing frosts reported across the province this past week.”
Alberta farmers are now 88 percent finished harvesting all crops with only a few acres of potatoes, flax and canola left.
Southern farmers are nearly complete with only 20 percent of flax left to harvest, while producers in the central regions are working on their last 30 percent of canola and 20 percent of potatoes.
Harvest in Manitoba is 85 percent complete with work now starting on the corn crop, which has reached physiological maturity and is drying down. Six percent of provincial corn acres have been harvested.
Harvest in Saskatchewan is now 95 percent complete, although farmers faced rainy conditions last week. Precipitation ranged from 30 to 45 millimetres across the province, which the crop report called a good start in replenishing soil moisture levels going into winter months.
However, Trevor Hadwen, an agroclimate specialist with Agriculture Canada, said it’s going to take a lot more than a few inches of rain in September to recover from the severe drought conditions that the Prairies have seen in the last few years.
“To really get back to normal, it’s going to take a good winter snow, a good runoff to fill those dugouts, to fill up the reservoirs that have been so dry, especially through southern Alberta, and then recharge that soil profile as well,” he said.
Topsoil ratings improved slightly during the reporting period with cropland in Saskatchewan rated 23 percent adequate, 52 percent short and 25 percent very short. This compared to 20 percent adequate, 45 percent short and 35 percent very short in the previous report.
For pastureland, the topsoil rating was 19 percent adequate, 53 percent short and 28 percent very short, compared to 16 percent, 44 percent and 40 percent, respectively, in the previous week.
Some Manitoba producers faced rain as well with Ingelow in the southwest receiving 40.7 mm of rain while areas in the central and eastern areas received no rain at all.
This brought a slight improvement in soil conditions in the zeo to 30 centimetre range, which are now reported to be dry to optimal compared to last week’s report of dry to very dry.
Rainfall in Alberta ranged from five to 45 mm with surface conditions sitting at 27 percent poor, compared to a five-year average of 19 percent; 38 percent fair compared to a five-year average of 27 percent; 27 percent good compared to a five-year average of 40 percent; six percent excellent compared to a five-year average of 11 percent; and two percent excessive, compared to a five-year average of one percent.
This week’s crop report information is based on crop statistics as of Oct. 2-3, depending on the provincial reporting time frame. This week will be the final weekly crop report for Saskatchewan for this year. A final report is set to be published Oct. 20. Reporting will continue in Manitoba and Alberta as late stage crops remain to be harvested.
