In most parts of the province, weather conditions over the last week were favourable for the harvesting of crops left over from 2016 as well as the seeding of new crops for 2017. Showers and rainfall over the last week occurred mainly in the western parts of the province. Provincially, seeding progress was up by 26 per cent from the past week, to 57 per cent now completed, but still behind the 5-year average (2012-2016) of 83 per cent at this time. Regionally, seeding progress is most advanced in the Southern Region at 88 per cent, followed by the Central Region with 67 per cent, North East Region at 39 per cent, Peace Region at 37 and the North West Region at 35 per cent per cent.
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About 80 per cent of the 2016 unharvested crops have now been taken off the fields (up 19 per cent from last week), with approximately 233,000 acres still remaining. Compared to May 2 (first crop report), currently, six per cent of unharvested crops are in the Central Region, 20 per cent in the North East, 29 per cent in the North West and 18 per cent in the Peace.
Regionally, excessive soil moisture levels have dropped between two to seven per cent from last week. Surface soil moisture across the province is rated at one (one) per cent poor, six (seven) per cent fair, 35 (35) per cent good, 41 (43) per cent excellent and 17 (14) per cent excessive. Provincially, pasture and tame hay conditions are reported as nine per cent fair, 67 per cent good and 24 per cent excellent. Fall seeded crops conditions are rated as one per cent poor, six per cent fair, 74 per cent good and 19 per cent excellent.
