Manitoba Agriculture reports very warm weather conditions and rainfall in many areas have significantly advanced crop development over the past week.
Manitoba Agriculture released its weekly crop report yesterday.
Anne Kirk, a Cereal Crop Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says we have seen variable precipitation with most areas getting rain this past week but the amounts depend on the exact spot people were in so soil moisture conditions are good in some areas wile other areas could use more moisture.
This last week we did see some heavy rainfall in a couple of areas. The northwest region and parts of the eastern region did see heavy rainfall with some low laying areas of the fields. Water laying in the field is obviously not great at this time of year so there may be some crop damage due to that. There also was some hail but I haven’t heard any reports of crop damage at this point.
For insects and diseases we have seen fairly low numbers at this point in the season. For diseases there’s not really a whole in terms of update. A lot of farmers have applied fungicide for sclerotinia or fusarium head blight but at this point we don’t know what the actual amounts of those diseases in the field will be. In terms of insects it really depends on the region. In the southwest region three’s no concerns with insects. In the northwest bertha armyworm moth trap counts have continued to climb. In the central region we are seeing grasshoppers in some fields and there has been some spraying, as well as some diamondback moth larvae and bertha armyworm trap counts have been variable. In the eastern region there hasn’t been a lot of insect concern but there has been a little bit of spraying for grasshoppers and in the Interlake numbers for insects are relatively low to date.
~ Anne Kirk, Manitoba Agriculture
Kirk says we should see the winter wheat harvest starting fairly early this year due to the hot conditions. She says winter wheat is starting turn so it shouldn’t be too long before harvest begins.
