Despite progress, harvest in Sask. remains well behind average

Harvest in Saskatchewan remains well behind schedule even though many regions made good progress last week, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture's latest crop report.

Sixty-nine per cent of the crop is now in the bin — up from 55 per cent last week, but still well below the five-year average of 88 per cent for this time of year.

The report covers the Oct. 8-14 time period.

Harvest is most advanced in the northeast with 85 per cent of the crop now combined. Harvest is slowest in the east-central region of the province at 51 per cent, the ministry said.

The west-central region has 77 per cent of the crop combined, while harvest progress is at 76 per cent in the southwest, 65 per cent in the northwest and 62 per cent in the southeast.

While many areas of the province received mixed precipitation last week, including the Moosomin area reporting 40 mm of mixed precipitation, the ministry said other regions received very little moisture allowing producers to spend more time in the field.

It said the warm and dry weather forecast for next week should allow more producers to resume combining.

The ministry reported some fields remain saturated with excess water, particularly in southern regions.

Lodging, strong winds, localized flooding and frost caused most of the crop damage in the last week, while geese and wildlife continue to cause damage by feeding on swathed crops, it said.

The ministry said it continues to receive reports of "significant downgrading at the elevator" due to crops sprouting.

Most of the crop coming off is tough or damp and is being placed into aeration bins and grain dryers, it said.

Meanwhile, most livestock producers indicated to the ministry they have adequate supplies of hay, straw, greenfeed and feed grain heading into winter.