Cooperative weather conditions over the past week have allowed harvest to continue relatively unimpeded in Manitoba. In Manitoba Agriculture’s latest crop report, it was noted combining was about 40% finished across all crops and regions, with only longer season crops like soybeans, sunflowers and corn left to start.
“Things are moving along,” noted Manitoba Agriculture’s Pulse and Soybean Specialist Dennis Lange. “Across winter wheat and fall rye we’re sitting at about 99%, so we’re pretty much wrapped up there. When we’re looking at spring wheat across the province, we’re sitting at 68%, barley is sitting at 76% and oats is sitting at 73%. Field peas are pretty much wrapped up as well at at 98%. The big crop in Manitoba, canola, is sitting at 30%.”
Generally speaking, yields have been variable with what’s been put into the bin, so far. Yield reports range from 40-110 bu/acre for fall rye and winter wheat, 25-90 bu/acre in spring wheat, 80-180 bu/acre in oat, and 90-115 bu/acre in barley.
Lange added edible bean harvest has started, with some loads coming into facilities in Southern Manitoba over the past week, with the expectation that in next week’s Manitoba Crop Report he will have a better idea of how many acres have been combined.
Longer season crops continue to progress, with this week’s report indicating corn fields at the R5 stage(dent). Earlier seeded sunflower fields were in the R8 (back of the head fully yellow, bracts remaining green) growth stage while later seeded fields were at the R7 growth stage (back of the head turning yellow).
Based on long range forecast models, frost doesn’t appear to be in the cards for Southern Manitoba over the next seven to ten days, which is good news for farmers with longer season crops.
“That’s definitely going to be a bonus for us, I guess, getting through the next couple of weeks without frost,” he said. “Soybeans in the Red River Valley, I think, are pretty much out of the frost risk for the most part.”
In this week’s crop report, soybeans were noted in all regions as being at the R6 to R7 stage, and Lange noted harvest may begin relatively soon after conducting some maturity ratings earlier in the week.
“We have our first variety reaching 95% brown pod, meaning that it’s fully mature,” he explained. “It is an earlier season variety, but it went very quickly from the time it started to turn. Almost five days from the time it started to turn to the time it was 95% brown pod. Again, the hot weather we’ve been having has really pressed things along rapidly.”
Lange believes soybean yields, like other crops, will be a mixed bag this year. With that said, he thinks the provincial average will be above last year’s 38 bushels per acre, pointing to better moisture conditions during the 2024 growing season.
Source: https://discoverwestman.com/articles/edible-bean-harvest-begins-soybeans-not-far-behind
