By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, July 27 (CNS Canada) – Pulse crops in Saskatchewan are starting to fall under the combine. Others are being desiccated. Damage from dry weather and heat in the southern portion of the Saskatchewan grain belt have yet to be fully assessed. However, with harvest underway in the south, yields are expected to be lower or significantly lower than normal.
Growers in west-central Saskatchewan will likely need another week before starting to harvest pulses and crops there are also expected to take yield hits due to lack of moisture and heat stress. But conditions are not as bad as further south.
Read Also
Pulses: Frost damage reported in Victoria
By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada Winnipeg, January 19 (CNS) – The USDA has raised its production estimates for…
Province-wide, peas are rated 50 per cent good to excellent, with the rest rated fair to very poor. Lentils are rated 39 per cent good to excellent, with 61 per cent rated fair to very poor. Chickpeas are rated 17 per cent good, 53 per cent fair and 30 per cent poor or very poor.
Peas in the dry southwest are rated 26 per cent good or excellent and 74 per cent fair to very poor. Lentils in the region are rated 25 per cent excellent to good and 75 per cent fair to very poor. Chickpeas are rated 13 per cent good and 87 per cent fair to very poor.
Pulses in the southeast rate 56 per cent good to excellent for peas and 44 percent fair to very poor. Lentils rate 28 per cent good, 72 per cent fair to very poor. Chickpeas rate 25 per cent good and 75 per cent fair.
Other regions report much improved pulse crop ratings:
– East-central: Peas, 69 per cent good to excellent, 31 per cent fair to poor; lentils, 59 per cent good to excellent 41 per cent fair to poor.
– West-central: Peas, 64 per cent good to excellent, 36 per cent fair to poor; lentils, 64 per cent good to excellent, 36 per cent fair to very poor.
– Northwest: Peas, 72 per cent good to excellent, 18 per cent fair, 10 per cent poor to very poor; lentils 72 per cent good to excellent, 28 per cent fair.
Farmers in New Zealand, struggling under a two-year ban on growing peas, are still awaiting government compensation. The proliferation of the pea weevil prompted the ban on growing peas in the Wairarapa district after it was found on several area farms in July 2016. Farmers were promised compensation to cover the difference between pea crops and alternative crops, but so far no money has been paid to growers.
Some lentil growers in eastern Montana are already harvesting, in what many say is one of the earliest starts to harvest on record for the area. Dry conditions matured the crop early but also cut into yields, with shorter crops being reported.
