CNS Canada –– The winter wheat harvest is underway in Manitoba, with farmers starting to combine the crop in the central region during the week ended Tuesday.
The latest crop report from Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development cited preliminary results showing average yields of about 60 bushels an acre for the winter wheat crop, with fusarium-damaged kernels present in harvested samples.
In the province’s southwest and central regions, fusarium levels in the winter wheat crop were at moderate to high levels.
Other disease concerns across the province were linked to blackleg and brown girdling in canola, as well as brown spot and bacterial blight in soybeans and edible beans.
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Oat acres in Canada are likely to recede this spring with cash prices to remain low, said Scott Shiels, grain procurement manager for Grain Millers Canada in Yorkton, Sask.
Other crops were advancing quickly due to hot and dry weather, though precipitation would be welcomed in some areas to help with grain filling and regrowth in hayfields and pastures, the province said.
Development remains variable, with some crops in the northwest still about two weeks behind the average stage for this time of year, the province noted.
Farmers were busy monitoring insect activity in their fields, with grasshopper numbers starting to increase in the southwest. In the northwest, bertha armyworm was reported in one canola field, with sunflower fields in the central region being monitored for sunflower beetle activity. Soybean defoliation due to a variety of insects was reported in the east.
Pastures were said to be in good condition in the southwest and northwest. Central-region pasture growth was adequate, though rain would help improve conditions, the province said. Haying, the report added, was in full swing.
