Saskatchewan's weekly crop report shows 23 per cent of the provincial crop is now in the bin, that's up from 16 per cent last week and just behind the five-year average of 26 per cent.

Harvest is most advanced in the southwest where 67 per cent of the crop in the bin, the west-central area is at 36 per cent, the southeast 16 per cent, the east-central nine per cent, the northwest six per cent and the northeast has four per cent of the crop combined. 

Crops Extension Special Matt Struthers says harvest is underway in a wide variety of crops now.

"Sixty-six per cent of the winter wheat is in, 62 per cent of the fall rye, 74 per cent of the lentils, 66 per cent of the field peas, 46 per cent of the mustard, 51 per cent of the durum, 16 per cent of the spring wheat and eight per cent of the canola has now been combined. An additional 21 per cent of the canola and 13 per cent of the mustard is swathed or ready to straight-cut."

Struthers notes crop quality is all over the map with the variability of the growing season region to region.

"We're hearing about some lighter crops out in the west, central and southwest where they're being downgraded due to lower weights. You know, that's just due to the dry weather they did grow through, they're just not very large. Whereas, in the eastern half of the province, we're expecting to see a bit of a downgrade just due to the environmental factors that crops had to grow through, mainly the moisture.  So, we'll have a better idea about quality in a couple of weeks, and we'll know more about yield estimates next week when we tally those numbers."

He says a key issue for farmers during the growing season and now into harvest this year has been the grasshoppers.

"They're gumming up combines and getting into seed samples. Some producers have been turned away at the elevator with the volume of Grasshopper bits in that seed sample. So they'll have to clean those, take some time and clean those samples out of their grain before they're able to return to those elevators."

Some farmers had a bit of a slow down following the recent rains that brought minimal amounts to the southwest and west-central areas, while other regions received enough heavy rain to lodge crops and further delay the harvest.

According to the report, the Lake Lenore area received 92 mm, the Tisdale area 75 mm, the Foam Lake area 35 mm, the Mossbank area 23 mm and the Shaunavon area 10 mm. 

Struthers says in areas where the crop is still fairly green the rain will further delay crop maturity.

Meantime, cropland topsoil moisture is rated as two per cent surplus, 55 per cent adequate, 15 per cent short and 18 per cent very short. 

Hay and pasture topsoil moisture is rated as two per cent surplus, 50 per cent adequate, 28 per cent short and 20 per cent very short.