Rains continued to fall across the province stretching from the Peace Region to the Southern Region. Provincially, crop conditions improved for all Regions from a week ago and are rated as 84 per cent in good or excellent condition, up one per cent from a week ago and up 13 per cent from the 5-year average (2011-2015) of 71 per cent. In terms of crop development, spring seeded cereals across the province are mostly in the dough development stage.
Harvest operations have begun across the province. Approximately one per cent of crops in the province have been combined and another one per cent of them are swathed. About 20 per cent of winter wheat and 11 per cent of fall rye are already in bin, with 16 per cent of winter wheat and 24 per cent of fall rye in the swath. Preliminary dryland yield remained relatively the same compared to two weeks ago. Provincially, the dryland yield (5-year averages are in brackets) are estimated at 50.8 (46.0) bushels per acre for spring wheat, 71.3 (64.8) bushels per acre for barley, 83.9 (76.6) bushels per acre for oats, 42.7 (37.7) bushels per acre for canola and 44.2 (42.7) bushels per acre for dry peas.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
First cut dryland hay is 85 (85) per cent complete across the province. Preliminary average provincial yield on dryland is estimated at 1.6 (1.8) tons per acre. Quality of the first cut is rated at 55 (64) per cent good to excellent. Irrigated haying operations are nearly complete at 98 (99) per cent, with yield at 2.1 (2.5) tons per acre and quality rated as 56 (73) per cent good to excellent. Second cut haying operations are underway, with 10 per cent of dryland and 15 per cent of irrigated land complete. The estimated yield for second cut hay is reported 1.1 tons per acre for dryland and 2.1 tons per acre for irrigated lands with quality rated at 73 per cent good to excellent in dryland and 68 per cent in irrigated lands.
