CALGARY — Gunter Jochum can easily tell which parts of his farm got rain and which parts the clouds passed over this year.
He and his brother-in-law grow wheat, canola, oats and soybeans on 2,500 hectares west of Winnipeg, much of that on long tracts hugging the Assiniboine River.
“Some showers that came through this summer during the growing season when things were really, really dry didn’t even cover the whole field,” said Jochum, president of the Wheat Growers Association.
The quality of the crop Jochum has harvested so far this year has been excellent, but yields for his oats and wheat have varied field to field.
He’s been hearing similar stories from other farmers.
“Yields are all over the place.”
Jochum was just about to finish getting cereals off the fields in early September, moving on to canola and then soybeans.
Though the crop itself is looking good, the harvest is being overshadowed by trade strife with China and the U.S., two of Canada’s biggest customers for agriculture products.
“The politicians need to step up. They need to stop their sabre-rattling, tariff and counter-tariff threats,” said Jochum, adding he’d also like governments to invest in transport infrastructure so shipments can more easily reach customers.
“It’s their job to make sure that the market can do its job as far as trade is concerned.”
Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan government’s latest crop report said that as of the first week of September, 41 per cent of this year’s harvest was complete, up from 23 per cent the previous week. That’s behind previous years, with some areas experiencing rain delays and others having to contend with dry conditions that could pose equipment fire risk.
Bill Prybylski grows canola, wheat, barley, oats, red lentils, yellow peas and flax on his farm west of Yorkton, Sask., along with some beef cattle. For him, this year’s harvest has been right on schedule and yields have been surprisingly good.
The same can’t be said for some other farmers in Saskatchewan, particularly in the southeast where conditions were dry.
“There definitely are some areas of the province that have been suffering from drought and yields are very disappointing — not surprising, but very disappointing,” said Prybylski, who is also president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“The rains came a little bit too late to solve this year’s crop.”
Even for those with healthy yields, trade turmoil has been casting a pall over what would have otherwise been a harvest to celebrate.
“World prices are still quite good. There’s still demand for canola out there. Unfortunately, that price discovery is just not finding its way back to the farm gate,” Prybylski said.
“There’s not going to be a lot of money left at the end of the day, even with these good yields.”
China hit Canadian canola with a 75.8 per cent tariff last month, a measure widely seen as a response to Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. The federal government has since announced a $370-million biofuel incentive to boost canola producers’ competitiveness, as well as a temporary increase in interest-free advances available to farmers. Canadian peas have been hit with hefty tariffs as well.
Prybylski said that while Ottawa’s moves are welcome, it needs to do more to make the tariffs “go away.”
The advance payment increase might make producers feel more comfortable putting their canola in storage until prices improve, but that’s a short-term solution.
“There’s a limited time that it can be stored safely and definitely has to be under the right conditions — cool and dry,” he said.
“There is a possibility of some spoilage in storage and then producers have to sell their crop to pay their bills.”
Carl Potts, executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, said yields are looking to be average or slightly above average. There was a dry start to the growing season, but some good rains came in July and August.
Potts said it’s not necessarily a bad thing that the harvest is taking a bit longer than in recent years.
“Usually when we start really early, it means there isn’t much crop there and things are really, really dry,” he said.
Yields may be decent, but market conditions aren’t, Potts said.
Since early April, when pulse farmers were finalizing their planting plans, prices have come down significantly. Potts said yellow peas are down 25 per cent from that time, large green lentils are down 45 per cent and red lentils are down 17 per cent.
“There’s always pressure at harvest time. Prices are often a little bit softer, but usually not this much softer.”
Potts said Ottawa’s credit increase is a “Band-Aid solution” that doesn’t get to the crux of the problems farmers are facing — reduced access to their biggest markets.
Another feature of this year’s season has been wildfire smoke hanging above the Prairies. Jochum, Prybylski and Potts each said that hasn’t had a major impact, and in some cases may have helped protect blooming plants from the blazing sun.
Raju Soolanayakanahally, a Saskatoon-based research scientist with the federal agricultural department, said he’d like to see more money and resources go into researching how smoke affects the quality of Prairie crops. There has been some study into how fires have affected the flavour profile of California wines, but he said the same should be done for widely used products like canola oil.
“Are there any smoke molecules that are absorbed and locked into our food system? We don’t have any understanding of any of this,” Soolanayakanahally said.
He added that it appears smoke can have an impact on plants’ development, depending on when in the season it comes and how moist the soil is at the time. Smoky air can sap moisture from plant leaves, but that can be offset by ample moisture in the soil, which for the most part there was this year.
“It’s a complex phenomenon.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2025.
Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press
