With a rapidly shrinking harvest window and a few good weather days, producers made every effort to harvest as much crop as possible as the onset of winter looms on the horizon. Producers in the Central and North West regions made good progress raising the provincial harvest percentage to 87 per cent, an increase of six percentage points over last week. Yields are above average throughout the province with the yields of some crops approaching those of 2013 but quality is extremely disappointing with significant downgrades due to high moisture content.
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Excessive surface soil moisture remains a significant issue in the northerly regions of the province. The North East is rating 27 per cent of the region as excessive, with the North West at 56 per cent and the Peace region at 21 per cent. This excessive moisture could be helpful if it freezes allowing for harvest equipment to access wet fields but a significant factor regarding when producers can get on the land next spring depending on snow accumulations this winter.
