Harvest delayed across the Prairies as farmers deal with waterlogged fields
Many grain farmers are experiencing delayed harvests after a summer of heavy rainfall in the Prairie provinces.
Saskatchewan producers are furthest behind schedule when compared with their five-year average, but all three Prairie provinces are lagging.
Thirty-two per cent of the crop is in the bin in Saskatchewan – compared to the 71 per cent average, according to the provincial crop report for Sept. 8 through 14. The province cited “widespread rainfall across the province,” which forced farmers to pause work.
Rob Stone is a farmer in Davidson, Sask. He said it has been challenging to find crops that are dry enough to go through the combine.
“It kind of feels like we haven’t gotten anything done, but we’ve been harvesting since the third week of August, and we’re kind of settling into the latter part of September here now. It’s been interrupted by rain several times,” Stone said in an interview.
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Stone said these conditions are atypical for farmers in his region.
“If we get a good stretch of weather for the next two weeks, a lot of crop is going to be harvested,” he continued, noting that some of those crops will still be wet or flattened and will require salvaging.
“The volume of precipitation that we’ve received in this last stretch, around eight inches since the end of August, is not unprecedented, but I would be hard pressed to find another year where we had quite that volume. So, we’re not used to that.”
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As of Sept. 8 in Alberta, 21 per cent of all crops were harvested, compared with the province’s 43.5 per cent five-year average. The Alberta crop report said the rainy weekend continued to delay the harvest and baling.
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“Weekend showers across the province continued to slow harvest progress and may decrease the quality of harvested grains. This joined with cool temperatures may keep some combines parked for several days,” Alberta’s report said.
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“Compared with last season’s hot and dry weather through late summer and fall, this season’s conditions have slowed harvest progress to well behind the five- and 10-year averages.”
The south, central, northeast, northwest and Peace regions were all said to be behind in their harvests, with the northwest and northeastern regions experiencing the most drastic dip of 36 per cent when compared to 2025.
The Peace was 31 per cent behind last year’s level, it added.
Southern Alberta was the closest to average. The harvest was said to be 40 per cent complete, six per cent behind its 2025 pace.
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Manitoba’s southwestern and northwestern regions were said to be below the 40 per cent average for all crops in the province, according to its Sept. 15 crop report. Officials reported the regions as being 27 per cent and 19 per cent complete respectively.
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In contrast, the central region was 59 per cent harvested, while eastern Manitoba reported 62 per cent of the crop to be in the bin. Forty-seven per cent was taken from the fields of the Interlake fields.
“The (eastern) region saw rainfall last week ranging from five to 47 (millimetres). Producers are hoping for sunny and windy weather to dry things up quickly and resume harvest,” according to the provincial report. “Fall field work is ongoing as fields may be too wet to harvest.”
Jonothan Hodson, a cattle and grain farmer and board chair of the Manitoba Crop Alliance, told Global News heavy rainfall and windy weather at the onset of harvest season in August created subpar conditions for many farmers.
As a result, he said his farm is harvesting later than usual.
“It’s going to create a higher cost,” Hodson said, adding that “at some point (farmers have) got to dry that grain to be able to market it. Whether they’re paying the elevator and the dryers or their neighbour. So, it costs more.”
“I’ve farmed 40 years, and no two years ever seem to be the same. So, I don’t know what next year’s going to look like, maybe we’re going to appreciate the moisture we got right now. Maybe next year is going to be a really dry year and we’re going to be glad we got subsoil (moisture).”
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Ranjan Sri Ranjan, a professor and acting head of the University of Manitoba’s department of biosystems engineering, said letting water sit on a field for extended periods can damage the crop.
“When there’s a lot of water sitting on the land, farmers, of course, try to put surface drainage but surface drainage is not the ideal thing to do, especially when you have machinery to cross over and you lose productive land,” he said.
Tile drainage could help farmers manage wetter-than-average summers, but they must be willing to pay the hefty $1,800 to $2,000 per acre price. Farmers would make their money back in the crops that the drainage would save, but it could take years depending on the amount of rainfall, the professor added.
Another issue farmers are facing with damp fields is soil compaction, which Sri Ranjan said can occur after “just a few passes” of heavy farming machinery when the ground is wet.
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“If you keep driving on wet soils, you’re going to compact the soil, which is going to have (a) long-term impact on yield. So, it’s not only the day-to-day activity, but the long-term sustainability of soil is also affected by not having proper drainage,” he explained.
Looking ahead, he said constant “extremely high water levels will actually affect the yield.”
“This requires a comprehensive look at the changes in climate. And we need to have a big conversation because farmers alone cannot handle this.”
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