Harvest is officially underway in parts of Alberta, that’s according to the latest crop report from the Government of Alberta.
Provincially all crop harvest is 3 per cent complete, on schedule with the historical average.
Spring cereals are currently in soft dough stage, slightly ahead of their 5-year average of early dough.
Major broadleaves are 98 per cent podding, ahead of the 5-year average of 90 per cent due to warm weather pushing crops out of flowering.
Crop conditions are currently rated 44 per cent good to excellent, decreasing for the fourth consecutive week and 2 per cent from last week.
Currently, the highest regional rating is in the South where major crops are rated 60 per cent good to excellent, followed by the Peace region at 54 per cent good to excellent, the North East at 51 per cent good to excellent, the North West at 29 per cent good to excellent and then the Central Region rated 21 per cent good to excellent.
Precipitation this past week ranged from 3 mm to 15 mm around the South,
Central, North West and Peace while some pockets got less than 1 mm.
Most of the North East Region received less than 5 mm.
While temperatures did cool down and light showers brought relief to crops that were maturing faster than normal, both surface and sub-surface soil moisture conditions
continued to decline.
