Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – Combining in Alberta reached 20 per cent complete as of Aug. 27, according to the latest provincial crop report issued Aug. 30. The harvest was eight points ahead of the five-year average. Also, nine per cent of Alberta’s crops have been swathed and 70 per cent remain standing.
Winter wheat and fall rye harvests neared completion at 94 and 93 per cent respectively. Dry peas followed at 73 per cent done, and lentils at 59 per cent, durum at 39 per cent, barley at 31 per cent and spring wheat at 17 per cent. Of the remaining crops were oats at seven per cent combined, mixed grains at three per cent, canola at one per cent and spring triticale at less than one per cent.
Read Also
Feed Grain Weekly: Prices in a slow decline
Seasonal weakness and recent rains across the Prairies pressured feed grain prices according to a Moose Jaw-based trader.
By region, the south was furthest along at 38 per cent complete, with the central at 25 per cent, Peace at 11, northwest at seven per cents and northeast at six per cent.
However, the crops altogether rated 43 per cent good to excellent, 12 points behind the five-year average. The Peace region was at 57 per cent good to excellent, the south at 54 per cent, the northeast at 44 per cent, the northwest at 34 and the central at 22 per cent.
In terms of yields, Alberta’s major crops saw oats tally 69 bushels per acre, with the barley at 59, spring wheat at 46, dry peas at 37 and canola at 33.
The province’s tame hay remained at 27 per cent good to excellent over the week, with the second cut at 36 per cent complete, 14 points ahead of the five-year average.
The report said surface and sub-surface moisture levels remained stable, despite varied rainfall across the province. While the south saw none to two millimeters of precipitation, the northeast, northwest and Peace regions had 10 to 50 mm. On the whole, Alberta’s surface soil moisture levels were 33 per cent good to excellent and the subsurface was at 27 per cent.
