Crop and weather update

Peace (B.C. and Alberta): South and central regions continue dry. Some areas got a few tenths last week, but it was really sporadic and spotty. North Peace and the very east edge are getting good moisture and have very nice crops. Most fields are at full flower to early podding. Calls continue on the cause of the fields which aren’t flowering and have the strange symptoms outlined in last week’s Canola Watch. No definite answers have been found, but these crops are heavily drought stressed.

Alberta: Canola south of Lethbridge is stressed due to excess water, but canola looks good north of Vulcan and through the central region. Some areas northwest of Edmonton could use rain. A strip from Red Deer to north of Ponoka got up to 5” last week. Hail and high winds in the northeast damaged some fields. Staging ranges from 10% bloom to 90% bloom on some early seeded fields. Troy Prosofsky, CCC agronomy specialist for southern Alberta, notes that cabbage seedpod weevil numbers have dropped in that region in the past week. Click here for Alberta crop report.

Saskatchewan: Spotty showers across the province dropped next to nothing in some spots and up to 2” in others. Some fields are at the end of flowering, especially in the west. Most in the east are 50% to 70% flowering. Latest crops, which are not yet flowering, don’t seem to be catching up. Click here for Saskatchewan crop report.

Manitoba: Heavy thunderstorms rolled through Tuesday night and earlier in the week, but it was generally dry the past seven days. Hail damage was reported in the central and Interlake regions. Earliest crops in the south are starting to show seed colour change. Many crops across the province are done flowering. Crops have been improving in many areas over the last week or so.