Harvest has all but wrapped up in Saskatchewan with 99% of the crop now in the bin.

Snow and rain in early November have delayed wrapping up the harvest for crops like flax and oats.

Crops Extension Specialist Shannon Friesen says a change in the weather back in September made it a challenging harvest overall.

“Anything that came off prior to the rain was grading really good, we had many crops in the top two grades. Of course, anything that has come off a little bit later due to just sitting in the ground a little longer and with the rain and snow suffered some downgrading at the elevator. Downgrading included everything from sprouting, bleaching, and staining. We have some earth tag issues and of course, any of those immature crops as well may have had some frost damage.”

She notes the biggest issue for producers this year was the weather.

“We really didn’t have a lot of other pressure insect or disease wise, mainly going back of course, to the hot conditions, as well as the dry conditions. So, we really didn’t see a lot of issues with fusarium head blight and ergot. However, we do have some reports in some of the durum and fall rye in particular that they did have higher levels than normal.”

She notes crop yields varied greatly across the province, but are on par with the 10-year average.

For example, Hard Red Spring Wheat yields ranged from 49 bushels an acre in the Northeast to 47 in the Northwest, 41 in the West Central, 46 bushels an acre in the Southeast and 30 in the Southwest.

Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Final Crop Report for 2018 is available here.