The hot, dry conditions with patchy rainfalls have made for an early harvest for many farmers.

I caught up with diversification crop specialist with Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization, Scott Chalmers, who was standing in a wheat field just south of the Elva Cargill Grain Elevator, checking the crop stages in their plots at that location.  It rained in that area the night before, however that very field was still one mile away from that weather system, and thus seems to be the theme of this year's growing season, 'the rain missed us again,'

"That's the whole story of the year," shares Scott Chalmers. "If you're lucky enough to have a few showers on one spot, the crop looks really good, and if you happen to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time, things don't look good at all."

Chalmers notes some crops still look decent, but others are feeling the stress of intense heat, and increasing drying conditions each 32-degree day.

"The good news is most crops that were seeded early look really good and they're entering that maturity already, which is quite early.  But it's because we've had 25-30% more heat units this year than we're used to. So, our corn is 8-9 feet tall, when normally it's only head-height at this point.

The field test plots are located in that Melita area, and Chalmers notes the barley fields are ready to harvest, with wheat and oats not far behind. Their annual forages came off, and earlier this week they desiccated their peas.

"There's decent potential here," he adds. "With the peas, the yield looks very good. I think the oats could have been a little better, but it depends if you field got that rainfall or not.  Sometimes is delays maturity if it got the rain, so you're waiting for a bigger harvest but if it burned in like some of the other crops, then harvest is just around the corner."

More with Scott Chalmers below: