Producers working hard to get through harvest

Harvest continues across the Central Plains and the crop is showing promise, according to Manitoba Agriculture.

Livestock Forage Specialist, Shawn Cabak, says producers have been in the fields working hard to get their crop combined.

"(It's) just nicely getting started into harvest. Pretty much all of the winter cereals, the fall rye and winter wheat has already been combined," says Cabak. "We're just nicely getting into the spring cereals. So, wheat, oats, barley and canola is just starting to be combined."

Weather-wise, temperatures have been close-to-average. Cabak says the Corn Heat Units have been recorded at around 100 to 105 per cent. Precipitation-wise, it's been a different story. He says the province has seen above-average rainfall, while Portage has seen 130 to 140 per cent of normal rain this year.

"We've had some fairly regular rain, so, that always helps the later-maturing crops such as the corn, the soybeans, the field beans that generally don't mature until later than the spring cereals or the canola crops."

He notes some crops are at different stages of production, and we've seen some variability in the growth throughout the year. That means we will also see variability in the yield. That being said, Cabak is predicting yields to be average to above-average, with the quality being good.

On the livestock side of things, he says there should not be any forage shortfalls like we saw last year. He says we have seen really good hay and pasture production, which is good for the beef sector. Livestock prices are strong, and projections are showing we should see strong prices in the fall.