Harvest approaches the southeast with ideal conditions over the weekend

Harvest is fast approaching the southeast, as crops are drying out in the last half of August while temperatures remain high.

In the latest crop report from the provincial government, they estimated that 1-2% of crops have been harvested, as some fields are already ready to be cut.

With warm weather and sunshine forecast for the weekend, that'll go far in making the rest of the crops ready to harvest.

Agrologist Edgar Hammermeister says that harvest has started with winter wheat, and other crops look to be ready soon.

"The crops are looking generally quite good in the southeast corner, winter crops are starting to be harvested. There is a bit of a gradient, there's still going to be a bit of waiting the closer you get to the Manitoba border, because they were wetter through the spring and their crops are not quite mature yet.

Most of those crops will take around a week to be ready to harvest, though how long it exactly takes is up to the weather.

"Here at Alameda, the winter wheat is harvested and we're going to be into the barley and peas soon.  The wheat is a little bit away yet, for the people who seeded in the first week in May there's probably a week to maybe ten days," said Hammermeister, "Depending on what heat units we're going to get that'll move the wheat along." 

Hammermeister says that despite hail causing trouble in many regions over the summer, he estimates that's affected only about 15% of Saskatchewan crops.

They're in a good position to finish the growing season strong, though a bit less moisture landing on crops would be appreciated.

"It's a fantastic forecast. Sunshine, 30 degrees, light breeze, that's excellent weather and hopefully we can get some less dew in the morning. That's causing delays to start," said Hammermeister, "It's just the reality of having so much moisture around and in the soil."

 Hammermeister says he wishes everyone the best of luck during harvest and reminds people to be careful as farmers will be moving machinery along highways in the coming weeks.