Depending on the farmer, they’re either welcoming the hot weather or are a bit concerned.
Vice-President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture Todd Lewis farms near Gray, south of Regina. He says he finished spraying fungicide on his lentils and canary seed and some spraying for fusarium head blight on his durum wheat. His crops are coming along nicely.
“By the end of the week, pretty well all our fields will be in the flowering stage and so on,” Lewis said. “The crops are a little bit behind compared to other years but at the same time there’s a heck of a growth there and this heat we’re expecting over the next seven to ten days should really catch them up.”
Board Chair of Cereals Canada Brett Halstead has a mixed farm in the Nokomis area, north of Regina. He says conditions there are pretty good with the humidity helping things.
“Most of the grass is pretty good. We had some spring rains which is critical for grass production, so it’s probably as good of a hay cut as we’ve had in several years so pretty happy with it (but) dry down is a little slow because of the humidity though.” Halstead said.
The Chief Agricultural Editor of SaskAgToday.com Kevin Hursh farms in the Cabri area in the southwest region of Saskatchewan. Like Lewis and Halstead, Hursh says his crops are doing fine but is concerned about the heat.
“We don’t have a lot of reserve,” Hursh said of moisture in the ground in his area. “When other areas were getting an inch or two or three, we were getting three or four or five tenths, maybe an inch in some isolated areas, so I do worry about an extended hot, dry period and what that might do to crops.”
Hursh says ideally, temperatures in the mid to high 20s and even 30 degrees is okay, but anything above 30 does not bode well for crops.
The provincial crop report, released Thursday, indicated despite excessive moisture in some areas and drier conditions in others, crops overall are in good condition.