Warm temperatures continued to accelerate crop development across Manitoba this past week, with the earliest fall rye fields expected to begin coming off this week.
The latest weekly crop report on Tuesday said fall rye and winter wheat are drying down with fields between hard dough and physiological maturity.
Meanwhile, most corn fields are between V10 to silking; and while many corn fields remain uneven, the problem has improved with the warm weather in the last few weeks, the report said.
“Continued warm temperatures are needed to further even out the crop.”
Spring wheat ranges from the soft dough to hard dough growth stages with awns starting to turn colour. There has been no change in spring wheat quality from the previous week. Spring wheat quality is rated mostly fair to good with 5 to 10% of the crop being reported as poor in the Southwest, Northwest, Central, and Interlake regions.
The earliest seeded canola crops are well into pod filling with flower drop complete. However, increased flower blast due to warm temperatures was noted by producers and agronomists.
Sunflower growth progressed rapidly in the warm conditions with stands ranging from R3 (bud elongation) to R5.1 (10% flowering) with most plants being at the R4 (inflorescence opening) growth stage. Soybeans are in the R2 (full bloom) to R3 (beginning pod) stage with the most advanced fields now at full pod (R4).
Field peas are in the R4 to R5 stage. For the most part, fields are looking good, however, there are fields affected by the excess moisture and doing poorly, most notably in the Eastern region.
Southwest:
Little to no rain has been observed in the area over the past week. The weather has been unusually calm, with temperatures above normal. Large creeks are flowing, but small creeks are not. There is no standing water in low spots. Smoke was again present in some areas during this week.
Northwest:
Hot and humid conditions persisted most of the week and continued to advance crops in the region. Highest temperature was 31.4°C at the Drifting River station and lowest overnight temperatures was 8.7°C at San Clara station. Most of the region received little to no precipitation, with the except of Reedy Creek station which received 44 mm.
Central:
The Central region had mostly warm and dry week with some localized rainfall. Altona received 23.8 mm, Morris 10.8 mm and Elie 9.9 mm. Smoke reduced visibility at times, and there were heavy morning dews. There are dead spots in low lying areas from wet conditions earlier in the season. The recent warmer temperatures have promoted rapid development of corn soybean and edible beans which have markedly improved in their appearance over the past months.
Eastern:
Rainfall amounts across the region were highly variable and ranged from 1.5 mm to 48 mm with almost all of this accumulation occurring on Monday of last week across all districts. Some reports of localized hailstorms of varying intensity were also received. Temperatures last week continued warmer than normal and field crops that were not suffering from extended water stress demonstrated rapid growth. Standing water issues were subsiding in most areas.
Interlake:
The Interlake region continues to experience warmer and humid weather conditions, with daytime temperatures ranging from 26.8 to 29.4°C; daily averages around 20.8°C. Rainfall remains extremely variable with scattered thundershowers. Amounts this past week ranged from trace amounts to 17.6mm in the Selkirk and Moosehorn area. Drier conditions are still needed in some areas for crop development and advancement, particularly in the southern part of the region, which remains wet with noticeable standing water in a few fields.
