Saskatchewan Agriculture reports, despite a mixed bag of crop losses, yields this year are shaping up to be about average.
Saskatchewan Agriculture released its weekly crop report for the period from June 26 to July 2 Thursday.
Shannon Friesen, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says, despite uneven germination and emergence due to drier conditions in many areas and a mixed bag of factors that have resulted in crop damage, most farmers have indicated yields are likely going to be about average this year.
Crop damage this year is a mixed bag, as it is every year and every week it seems.
Some areas have been suffering from localized flooding.
Many areas have been suffering from a lack of moisture.
Now that we have this heat and we've had very high temperatures over the last couple of weeks as well, we have had some heat damage out there.
We've had some strong winds and we've had many thunderstorms but, with that, also comes hail so we have seen quite a bit of damage from that.
At the moment many producers are busy spraying for sclerotinia in canola as well as fusarium head blight in those cereal crops.
The impact of that really won't be really seen for another couple of weeks once the symptoms start.
For the most part crop damage is a mixed bag.
In terms of severity it really depends on where you are.
In some cases that hail completely hailed out fields and in some cases it just set it back a little bit.
Friesen says, with the really hot temperatures expected over the next week, yield potential may be reduced, especially in areas where there has been a lack of moisture.
She notes most of the canola is flowering and really hot temperatures can result in heat blast which is abortion of the flowers and that does ultimately reduce overall yields but, she acknowledges, in areas that have received more moisture yields are looking OK and it's still only early July so there is time for things to improve.