October 28, 2009

Harvest operations in the province of Manitoba continued during the week ended Monday (October 26), despite cloudy skies and light precipitation in some areas, Manitoba Agriculture and Food said.

Good progress was made with soy harvest in the eastern areas of the Central region while in the Eastern region soy harvest varies from 15 to 90 percent complete, the department said in a crop update. Harvest progress was also being made in the southern areas of the region.

Yields of the soy harvested range from 20 to 45 bushels per acre. The majority of the soy was testing 20 percent moisture content or higher and producers were either drying the crop to safe levels of moisture for storage or putting the crop into aeration bins where the crop will be monitored closely, the report said.

A few acres of sunflowers were harvested in the Central region with no harvesting to date reported in the Eastern region. Head rot and high moisture contents are being reported, the department said.

No harvesting of grain corn occurred although combining of silage corn continued. Mould is being reported in corn in the Eastern part of the province.

The harvest of other crops such as flax and canola continued across the province.

A small amount of potatoes were dug in the Portage area; harvest is slowly wrapping up.

Soil testing, fall fertilizer application and field cultivation continued where conditions allowed, the department said.