Early harvest forced, yields are down

By Jeremy Appel on September 23, 2017.

Medicine Hat News

Warm and dry conditions throughout the summer have led to an earlier harvest than usual with a lower yield, according to the most recent crop report from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

“Harvest progress is simply a measure of what percentage of the fields that are seeded to the crops that are listed have been combined,” said Agriculture and Forestry crop specialist Mark Cutts. “The yield is a measurement of what they actually took off on those fields.”

In southern Alberta, an average of 94.2 per cent of the fields were harvested, including 100 per cent of dry peas, 90.9 per cent of canola, 96.6 per cent of barley, 96.1 per cent of durum wheat and 95.7 per cent of spring wheat.

By contrast, the provincial average harvest was 56 per cent.

This resulted in a yield of 30.2 bushels per acre of dry peas, 28.4 of canola, 43.2 of barley, 33.6 of durum and 34.3 of spring wheat.

The yield was 26 per cent lower than the provincial average, whereas last year it was 6.3 per cent higher.