The recent rains have pushed the pause button on harvest, and even though the rains have freshened everything up, at this stage of the growing season the moisture is too little too late.

"We are starting to visualize the impact of that drought period we had in July," says Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) member, Bill Campbell. "So, we are seeing some crops that are able to handle it a little better, and we're seeing some late-season crops that are showing the impacts of that lack of moisture." Campbell's farm 1500 acres between Minto and the Souris valley.

"Some of our traditional crops, wheat, barley, oats, have been able to be somewhat surprising, unless they have been severely impacted or on lighter soil. And, we're seeing the crops that are 'newly introduced' and I would suggest that be some of the soybeans and some of the corn where they are showing those stress indicators of drought," explains Campbell. "My thoughts, as I've been driving around, is that the soybeans are going to have the greatest impact of the yield degrading and compromise."

Canola was still in bloom within the past few weeks, but can the rains of the past few days have a positive impact on those crops?  Campbell says there may be some benefit but it's difficult to say at this stage.

"We can't ignore the fact that there will be better seed set, and probably increased seed size, on the pods that are able to fill," he says.  "Now, we have seen some of the top pods that have aborted and are no longer there. And that's what we're also seeing in the soybeans, where we had the top 1/3 or 1/4 of the plant where they were trying to flower, and that's where the pods should set, but they're not there, and the plant has gone into a survival mode in trying to fill the bottom pods," he adds.  "So, we won't be able to realize the yield potential that was there on those particular crops."

Campbell notes that the rains have been too late for some of the barleys and the wheat with regards to 8-row and 6-row in certain spots with the head filling, so some of the sampling may show smaller seed size than what would be optimum. 

 "But I think at this point in time," he says, "what harvesting has been done is of good quality.  It looks like it's good and red and should grade a #1, not having many disease impacts on it from what we can see."

This seems to be the case throughout the southwest corner of the province, that wherever those moving clouds rained even a brief shower there is a stark difference in yields.

"I believe in our area we never did see over one inch of rain at any one particular time, and that was doing us quite fine until it quite raining, and then we started to see the impacts and variability in the crops," shares Campbell. "That's what we're coming to realize as we get the combines into the fields and we start harvesting and pulling the product into the bins ... when we did some combining over the weekend there would be spots that it was pretty good, and then there were spots that were pretty bad."

Please listen below to more with KAP member, Bill Campbell, as he shares more on corn grain and cattle producer in the Minto area.

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