Canada: Rains slow down barley harvest in most regions

There were widespread rains across the Canadian prairies last week, ranging from a trace to 50 mm, which slowed down the harvest for the majority of the regions, CMBTC reported on September 19.

This week, the forecast is for generally dry and warmer temperatures but some regions will be slowed down due to light showers that will likely stop or slow down harvest progress.

Most of Western Canada is drying out and farmers are taking every advantage of non-rain weather to harvest their crop. The cool, wet weather has taken its toll on the quality, causing significant degradation of the barley. Sprout/chitted seed has been reported to as high as 60% on the barley that has been harvested to-date.

Alberta

It was another wet week in parts of the province but there is little rain in the forecast and many regions are drying out. However the barley is still not dry in the fields and farmers continue to harvest tough barley and dry it on farm. The maltsters may have to entertain the possibility of accepting barley with up to 15.5% moisture. Not all farmers have access to dryers and barley is being harvested in the mid to upper teens. Aeration may not be sufficient to dry barley down to 13.5% moisture. Overall barley harvest is roughly 25% complete.

• Southern region (Lethbridge, Strathmore, Foremost): Although some of the harvested barley in this region was not up to specifications to make malt due to low test weight, high protein and other deficiencies, maltsters are looking at these samples again because they may be able to use some for their malt requirements. Exporters will also look for spec barley for their export programs. The maltsters and exporters will place some of this barley on hold until they can assess the remainder of the crop results.

• Central region (Rimbey, Ardrie, Olds): Harvest has been a struggle due to the wet conditions but farmers have still managed to combine at least 25% of the barley. This region still has the potential of producing a large, high-quality crop but the cool wet conditions are not conducive to producing quality results. The majority of the barley is combined tough and moved into farm dryers to bring moisture levels down to 13.5%. There is the potential for rain mid-week but dry weather is in the forecast for next week. There is no frost in the forecast. The region needs dry warm weather to move the harvest forward.

• Northeast region (Camrose, Vermillion, Provost): Harvest has been painfully slow in this region, as the poor weather conditions have stalled harvest for some areas in the past week. Conditions are set to improve in the next 7-10 days with no rain in the forecast. The temperatures will be around 17-18°C with no rain. Harvest is roughly 10% completed to date.Again this is another region where barley will be harvested tough and the quality will be degraded to some extent, mostly chitted. Yields are still anticipated to be large.

• Northern region (Edmonton, Barrhead, Leduc): Harvest in this region has been slow, continually interrupted by unwelcomed rains. Approximately 15 mm of rain fell overnight Monday, stopping harvest. The forecast going forward is for dry weather and the temperatures will be closer to 18-19°C. This region requires an extended period of dry, warm weather and many farmers will have to wait for their fields to dry down before resuming harvest. The quality of the barley will be below the normal five year average, as much of the barley harvested is chitted/sprouted. No frost is in the forecast for the next week.

• Peace River region (Grande Prairie, Fairview): Barley harvest has slowly moved forward and some areas in this region are drier. Overnight temperatures have dipped close to zero however to date no frost has been reported. Barley harvest is estimated at 5% completed.

Saskatchewan

Warmer weather is to roll into the province this week, however most of the regions are still scheduled to get some moisture which will stall harvest efforts. Progress has been made across most of the regions depending on the conditions of the crop and weather situation. Rain over the previous week did stall field activities in some regions, especially the northeast. Warm weather will be critical in getting this crop harvested without causing anymore quality issues. Harvested grain is tough and being put on aeration and dried before longer-term storage.

• Southwest region (Swift Current, Maple Creek): Farmers are making harvest progress and should be close to 40% complete. There were a few days last week when harvest was completely shut down due to the wet conditions. The rains have caused degradation of the barley quality but the yields are average to above average, which is surprising for a region that did not get much moisture during the growing season. The barley harvested so far in this region has been low in chit and the protein level is averaging 12%.

• Southeastern region (Regina, Weyburn, Moosomim): Farmers have been aggressively combining this past week between rain events. Unfortunately, there is more rain in the forecast for later this week which will halt harvest for a day or two depending on the amount of rain the region receives. Conditions are set to improve next week with dry weather entering the region. Yields have been higher than anticipated, especially in the Weyburn area.

• East Central region (Yorkton, Kamsack): Unsettled weather and intermittent rains have continued to slow harvest progress. Many farmers have been combining whenever they have had a window without rain. Similar to most area, this region is harvesting high moisture barley which will be dried on farm or at a commercial elevator. Harvest will again be slowed down for the remainder of this week as rain is in the forecast for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in most regions. Dry weather is forecast for next week.

• West Central region (Saskatoon, Rosetown, Kindersley): Farmers in this region were able to make good harvest progress in spite of some intermittent rains, however the region should be rain free for the next week. Harvest is well over the 30% completion mark. The early samples from this region have looked good with low amounts of chitting on the few samples that have been submitted.

• Northeastern region (Melfort, Tisdale): This region has been attempting to harvest barley between the raindrops but scattered showers have resulted in little progress this past week. It rained Tuesday evening and more showers are slated for Friday and Saturday which will shut down harvest for three to four days depending on the amount of moisture. Quality is certain to suffer with this new precipitation. All the barley harvested so far has been tough and has been dried on farm.

• Northwestern region (North Battleford, Lloydminster): Harvest stalled during the week due to intermittent rain and cool temperatures. Harvest will continue to be a struggle as more rain is in the forecast. Only 10-15% of the barley has been harvested to date, well below the 5-year average of 35% for this time of year. The weather is set to clear up on the weekend, hopefully permitting farmers to get back in their combines. The region will need several weeks of dry warm weather to permit the crops to be harvested without further grade degradation.

Manitoba

In Manitoba most of the barley is harvested in the Red River Valley and the southwest, with the latter reporting higher than average yields, while over 50% of the barley crop remains to be harvested in the northwest where scattered showers have slowed harvest. The grades appear relatively good for most of the barley in the bin, however some of the samples are chitted, registering as high as 15%.

19 September, 2019