CropWatch™ 2011

How's your crop doing? Too much moisture? Too little? Any pest or disease problems?

Those are often topics you discuss with your neighbours in the field or over a cup of coffee, but through CropWatch 2011, we'd like to bring farmers across the Prairies into the conversation.

You can just let us know about crop progress in general, or if you have any unusual weather. Photos are especially welcome. If you notice any problems or have any questions, let us know about them as well, and we'll see if we can find an answer. We'll be keeping in touch with our network of public and private agronomists and farmer contributors who may be able to help.

Community Comments

  • Get your machinery ready for winter storage
    Posted 17 weeks 1 day ago by Dave Bedard

     

    Now that the 2011 crop is in the bin and winter crops are safely in the ground, it’s time to put your equipment back into winter storage. That means it’s also the perfect time to perform all those annual, routine engine maintenance chores.

    Aside from saving you time in the spring, getting fresh oil and fluids into engines now will better protect them during a long period of inactivity. Let's look at five ways to prepare your machinery for overwintering, in Scott Garvey's article HERE from Grainews.

    Do you have any...

    Reply

  • So far, so good for hay yields, quality in Sask.
    Posted 18 weeks 5 days ago by Dave Bedard

    Reports from around Saskatchewan appear to indicate hay yields in the range of good to excellent in most regions, with quality being good as well. The province's southwest, for example, is now in an often unheard-of situation for the region, reporting an "excess of hay."

    The Saskatchewan Forage Council on Friday released its final hay and forage report for 2011, also including forage reports from Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development and from Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. To read the council's report, click HERE...

    Reply

  • Risk management for high-green count canola
    Posted 19 weeks 1 day ago by Lyndsey Smith

    Farmers with canola left in the field waiting for green seed to clear need warm, damp days and time is running out before the risk of snow puts the crop at greater risk.

     

    This week's Canola Watch warns that if farmers do get enough rain and high humidity to lift canola moisture back above 20 per cent to restart the green-clearing process, there's a risk that canola may not dry back down enough for a timely harvest.

     

    Farmers may be better off to harvest remaining fields and seeking out buyers of high green count canola. Find a link to a list...

    Reply

  • Harvest in Saskatchewan nearly wrapped
    Posted 19 weeks 1 day ago by Lyndsey Smith

    The bulk of the Saskatchewan harvest is in the bin, well ahead of the five year average.

     

    The latest Saskatchewan Crop Report lists harvest as 98 per cent complete. Yields are reported as average to above average except in the south and southeast portion of the province, which suffered from excess moisture this spring and early summer. 

     

    As of October 3, topsoil moisture on cropland was rated as two per cent surplus, 50 per cent adequate, 40 per cent short and eight per cent very short. Some farmers were holding off applying fall fertilizer as soil was too...

    Reply

  • Sask. harvest close to done, well ahead of curve
    Posted 20 weeks 2 days ago by Dave Bedard

     

    Another week of warm weather has Saskatchewan producers well ahead of the five-year harvest progress average. Ninety-one per cent of the 2011 crop has been combined, according to the Saskatchewan agriculture ministry's weekly crop report on Sept. 29.

    Seven per cent is swathed or ready to straight-cut. The five year (2006-10) provincial average for this time of year is 72 per cent combined and 18 per cent swathed or ready to straight-cut. Click HERE to see the report.

    Reply

  • Clubroot intensifies, check fields
    Posted 21 weeks 1 day ago by Dave Bedard

     

    Wet conditions early in the season hastened the spread of clubroot throughout fields and to new areas. Higher incidences and severity than expected have been recorded in Alberta counties that only had a few documented cases in the past. And at least one new county, Vermilion River, has been added to the list of counties with known cases.

    "Clubroot spores are soil borne. With heavy rains, you can get erosion that carries infested soil to new areas, and you get mud that cakes on machinery and gets transported throughout a field and from field to field," Dan Orchard, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, said in a council release Friday....

    Reply

  • Ergot a potential grading issue this fall: CGC
    Posted 21 weeks 1 day ago by Dave Bedard

     

    Early results from the Canadian Grain Commission's Harvest Sample Program suggest ergot could be a grading issue in this year's wheat harvest.

    If a producer delivers wheat which exceeds the tolerances for ergot, the delivery will be downgraded even if it meets all other grading specifications, the CGC said in a release Friday.

    "Despite this issue, we believe the overall quality of this year's wheat harvest is promising," CGC chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson said. "Through our Harvest Sample Program, we've received samples of high quality wheat, as well as samples downgraded because of ergot."

    To date, the CGC...

    Reply

  • Saskatchewan harvest nearly complete
    Posted 21 weeks 2 days ago by Lyndsey Smith

    Nearly perfect weather in some parts of the province allowed farmers to pass the 75 per cent complete mark last week, according to the latest Saskatchewan Crop Report. 

     

    Across the province, topsoil moisture on cropland is rated as two per cent surplus, 68 per cent adequate, 27 per cent short and three per cent very short. Hay land and pasture topsoil moisture is rated as one per cent surplus, 63 per cent adequate, 31 per cent short and five per cent very short. The majority of livestock producers have adequate or surplus hay and straw supplies going into winter.

    Reply

  • Harvest tips for high green seed canola
    Posted 21 weeks 2 days ago by Lyndsey Smith

    The Canola Council of Canada's last weekly Canola Watch for 2011, contains handy tips on fall weed control, storage of hot canola and on harvest management of high green seed count canola.

     

    Moisture is necessary for canola seeds to continue clearing chlorophyll, so canola swathed in the heat or just after a frost may be as cured as it will get. If there's a few days of moisture in the forecast, waiting it out could help. Green locked in by heat may clear if moisture content reaches 20 per cent and remains there. Green locked in because of frost will not clear in the most immature pods, but may in the more mature,...

    Reply

  • When to swath after frost
    Posted 23 weeks 3 days ago by Lyndsey Smith

    Hot days and cool nights make for lovely harvest weather, but some parts of Alberta have already seen pockets of frost. If you've got standing canola, frost or even the threat of it may have you rushing out to swath. The Canola Council of Canada advises farmers to scout, not swath, in the case of mild frost.

     

    According to the Council's factsheet on the topic, a light frost is unlikely to cause significant damage and you could lose more by swathing too soon. However, it is important to get out there and check crops to ensure damage is not greater than expected. If plants...

    Reply
Page 1/13

Community photos


Crop Watch™ is a registered trademark of Richardson International Limited. Used with permission