Hot dry weather was the main issue facing farmers this past week, according to the latest Saskatchewan crop report.
Saskatchewan Agriculture crop extension specialist Matt Struthers says province-wide, things are not looking good.
“Province-wide, the crops are all looking quite poor indeed,” Struthers said. “There are some good areas of course, but overall very poor crop.”
Struthers says there were other factors in crop loss this past week.
“The population of grasshoppers has grown substantially due to the dry weather, they love it, so producers are out there spraying in fields that are still salvageable. Then a severe hailstorm ripped through the province, many parts of the province saw widespread damage.”
While there was some rain this past week, Struthers says it wasn’t enough to salvage a lot of crops.
He says even if we got substantial rainfall, there’s not much salvageable.
“We’re still hoping for rain of course, but the rain won’t save anything it’ll just keep it from dropping even lower, so any fields with potential the rain will help just meet that potential but anything that’s been damaged, the yield has already been set.”
He says the heat has also accelerated crop development, with all crops ahead of normal development for this time of year.