'Too little too late' would be the theme for any rain that now falls on most cereal crops in the Westman Region.  However, it's not too late for crops like corn, canola and soybeans, in fact it's pretty crucial right now.

Crop Diversification Specialist, Scott Chalmers, with Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization, says rain is still very important for these crops that are still developing their seed.

"Absolutely, for certain crops, like corn or soybeans, dry beans, sunflowers," he says.  "These are late crops that require eminent moisture now in order to make at least some decent yield."

"But your corn crop is at the end of its moisture reserves and if it's not going to get a rainfall right now at the time when its pollinating and silking and trying to make seed. If it's too dry to do that then it won't make a cob. So, what might be best in that situation is to turn a super dry corn crop into feed, rather than to take it to harvest for grain. Corn and soybeans use a lot of water, so if you don't get that rain, then that's something that you may have to consider," he adds.

"But the soybeans like this kind of heat," notes Chalmers. "But if there's no moisture, often you'll see the leaves upside down and grey, and that's when it's losing yield potential.  So, what could have been maybe a 40-bushel crop is now working on a 20 bushel per acre crop."

"I know the stakes are high in farming," he continues, "and often farms are looking for that really robust crop. But it really just boils down to weather and how it behaves, and that's really what determines everything that happens in financials. But farmers can certainly choose not to spray with fungicides and save a few dollars. Maybe they anticipated a dry year coming up so maybe they cut back on fertilizer and saved a few dollars, and at the end of the day you're potentially making more money because you made some wise decisions."