Hot, dry weather speeding up crop development as harvest begins in Sask.

WATCH: The focus for Sask. farmers is turning to harvest following an especially hot and dry growing season. Damian Smith reports.

As Saskatchewan’s very hot and very dry summer continues, crops in many areas are nearing maturity slightly ahead of schedule.

Many areas outside of Regina are feeling the effects of long dry spells, especially in the province’s southwest, which typically gets an early start on harvest compared to other areas in Saskatchewan.

“Earlier in the growing season it really took a major toll on crops in the south, southwest,” crop extension specialist Tyce Masich explained. “The rain will help crops to an extent, but a lot of the damage certainly has been done in that area due to the widespread dry conditions they’ve had.”

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Topsoil conditions around the province for croplands have fallen to just a five per cent surplus, with hayland and pasture topsoil moisture conditions dropping to just a four per cent surplus.

Just outside of Regina, Nick’s Service LTD has seen farmers start to file in, as harvest kicks off for some.

“With milder, wetter weather that we’ve had this year, harvest is maybe, getting back to normal in that middle of August, late August window,” explained Myles Fuchs, who works in sales and marketing. “But I know we’ve heard lots of customers this week are planning on desiccating lentils and getting into pulses in the next week or so.”

Limited precipitation in some areas has dropped the quality of pastures, with 27 percent considered in poor or very poor condition.

“I think the thing with pastures is they need that early moisture, early spring moisture and that early spring heat to get them kind of set up for the year,” said Bill Prybylski, the President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS).

“So, those areas of the province, particularly that southwest that were dry for so long, the grass just didn’t get that good start to the season.”

Even though early seeded crops will not benefit from continued precipitation – many producers are hoping for rain to help fill in later seeded crops, according to the province’s latest crop report for July 29 – Aug. 4.

Isolated thunderstorms brought significant precipitation to areas such as Old Wives Lake (132 millimetres), Vanguard (119 millimetres), and Cadillac (95 millimetres) – while other areas received negligible rainfall.

Areas that have received sufficient rainfall are generally seeing crops at normal stages of development – while moisture-stressed crops are typically ahead of normal growth stages.

Progress on this year’s harvest currently sits at one per cent, according to the crop report. Combines usually start hitting the fields around mid to late August.