Harvest is still weeks away, but farmers like Nick Cornea are already looking ahead to next year. Between hail damage, high winds, heavy floods and drought, his crops near Briercrest, Sask., have taken a beating.
“They’re better than what we kind of thought they were going to be, but they’re not bumper crops,” said Cornea, who grows wheat, lentils, canola and flax.
Cornea says the late rain set many crops back a few weeks and Sunday’s high winds dried out much of the top layer of soil, adding more stress to the plants. He says he’s hoping for at least two inches of rain to salvage his crops.
“That would help the crops fill out and get a little more plump and juicy, but I think the crops are what they are now. I don’t think there will be much change after that,” Cornea said.
Further east, just south of Regina, farmer Katelyn Duncan is hoping for less rain and milder temperatures to fill out her canola, lentils and durum. Temperatures in the mid-twenties would prevent flowers from falling off the plants. Duncan says the longer the crops flower, the greater the yield.
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“Once it gets really hot it tends to make those flowers fall off and then the crop matures a little bit faster, so we want to keep them flowering for as long as possible right now,” Duncan said.
The long-range forecast calls for “less and less” humidity, according to Global News meteorologist Peter Quinlan. But, Quinlan says temperatures are going to soar from now right through to the August long weekend.
Some good news, Quinlan says tornado season is coming to an end. While severe thunderstorms are expected to linger throughout August, the extreme weather won’t be as significant as it was in July.
Duncan says she’s two to three weeks away from desiccating and about four weeks away from harvest, a little later than the last two years, but on par with the five-year average. The only concern she has leading into harvest would be the possibility of an early frost.
“As the crops are still actively growing and flowering right now, any cold night-time temperatures below zero could have a negative impact,” Duncan said.
On average, southern and central Saskatchewan usually see the first frost within the first two weeks of September, according to Quinlan.
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