Crops in southeast developing well

July 1, 2025, 8:13 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It has been a cool start to summer with rain and low overnight temperatures, but according to the latest provincial Crop Report, most crops in the southeast are coming along nicely.

“Producers within the region are continuing with in-crop spray applications as the weather allows and monitoring for insect and disease pressure,” said Kim Stonehouse, Crops Extension Specialist in his report for the southeast from June 17 to 23. “Haying operations are just starting within the region but may be delayed due to rain in some areas. Storms that moved through the region over the past week caused hail damage to some parts of the region. Producers are still assessing the extent of the crop damage and waiting to see which crops are able to recover.”

Of course, with all that rain, topsoil conditions are fantastic right now, with cropland topsoil rating 86 per cent adequate, five per cent surplus, and only nine per cent short. Hayland is in around the same condition—three per cent surplus, 79 per cent adequate and 19 per cent short, while conditions in pasture land are rated as one per cent surplus, 78 per cent adequate, and 21 per cent short.

“Wind, hail and excess moisture caused minor to moderate crop damage in areas throughout the region,” Stonehouse noted. “Dry conditions continue to be reported with some areas indicating severe crop damage. Gophers continue to cause crop damage with a few areas reporting minor to moderate damage.”

As for pests, they’re making their presence known, but not to an extreme extent so far.

“Producers report minor to moderate flea beetle damage with control measures being taken,” Stonehouse pointed out. “Minor damage was also reported in a few areas due to cutworms, grasshoppers, aphids and pea leaf weevil. A few reports of crop damage due to plant diseases are starting to be recorded.”

Crops ready for the heat

After some timely rains, what’s needed in most parts of the southeast right now is a good shot of sunshine for a couple of weeks. Recent rainfall in the Atwater and Stockholm areas are enough to set the stage for plants to really take off.

“We got anywhere from an inch-and-a-half to close to four inches of rain since Thursday night,” said farmer Blake Duchek. “Where there’s close to four inches, we got lots drowned out. Every little impression is full of water now, so we lost some there, but that was on some of our further away land. Around home and where it got an inch-and-a-half to two inches, it’s really growing now. The crop has really advanced in the last week here.”

Much like the provincial Crop Report, Duchek’s crops are right where they ought to be for development, maybe a few days later than in 2024.

“I think we’re probably a week behind last year, just from the cold weather we had there during the middle of May, and those couple nights it froze,” he said. “Now we need some heat. We haven’t had that many 30ºC days yet.”

It won’t be long before Duchek’s canola is a bright yellow against the blue sky.

“You can see how much the crops grew just when they got that shot of rain,” he said. “Our canola is going to start to bolt, it won’t be that far from blooming here pretty soon.”

One big difference this year compared to the last growing season has been the pest situation, which is thankfully far less.

“At least this year there were no flea beetles,” Duchek said. “Last year we were spraying some two or three times—you couldn’t keep ahead of them on some quarters. This year we went out and checked, we only saw beetles one night, and after that they weren’t a problem. At least with growing conditions like this, the canola can stay ahead of it, so that’s good, not having to worry about the flea beetles.”

In the Rocanville area, Rylar Hutchinson says the cold start to the growing season actually turned out to be just what was needed.

“Crops are coming up good, we’ve had the rains at the right times, nice half- to one-inch rains,” he said. “At the start of May, we had that week and a half of cold, rainy weather and it brought around three inches in our area. Everyone was shaking their heads, but looking back, I’m glad we had that moisture. It’s soaked in good, and crops are off to a good start!”

He’s noticed very few flea beetles in his canola as well—another positive in what’s shaping up to be a fine season.

“I was okay and we didn’t have to spray for flea beetles, there were very little,” Hutchinson said. “I never seeded my canola until after May long, and that definitely helped.”

In the Gerald area, Kevin Hruska also reports seeing excellent conditions on his land.

“We’re in good shape, we’re in the best shape of all of Saskatchewan,” he said. “We had that big snow at the start of the season, which made it kind of burdensome with seeding and everything, and difficult, but we’ve had good, timely rains. We’ve had a couple inches of rain since and so growing conditions are ideal for us right at the moment.”

Hruska has also made a first pass of chemical application, but as Murphy’s Law dictates, if you want the wind to start blowing, pull the sprayer out of storage.

“We’ve got our first pass done, and we’re starting our second pass,” he said, adding the pressure is on to get that second pass done. “As soon as you start spraying, it’s a windy time of the year and we struggle with that. We’re maxed out with our sprayers, we don’t have big sprayer power. We have three sprayers only. Farms half our size have three sprayers.”

As for the perfect rain ratio, Hruska noted “we could use three-quarters of an inch every week now for month.”

Moosomin-area producer Trevor Green also believes the local area is in the perfect zone.

“Considering what some of those guys are going through east and west of Assiniboia, it’s pretty much a write off in some areas,” he said. “Even up at Churchbridge, usually those guys are complaining about too much water in potholes, and they’re like ‘we need some rain here pretty quick.’ So, you know, we’re doing half decent around Moosomin, I think. Grandpa always used to say, ‘we’re two weeks away from a drought in Saskatchewan all the time’!”

Green has noticed that the earlier-seeded canola looks as though it’s performing better than some of the crop seeded after April’s big blast of snow.

“We’ve kind of had a cool spring and I think some of that stuff has struggled just a bit,” he said. “A couple shots of rain and some heat here, it’s really come on lately. I think it’s quite a bit behind where it actually should be, compared to when it was seeded.”

Some producers in the Shaunavon area even reported frost on June 24—a fact that really puts into perspective how fortunate the Moosomin area is.

“You sit and talk with the with producers from all over the southeast here and east-central, around Moosomin, we’re very fortunate right now compared to a lot of parts of the province,” Green said.

On the grazing side, pasture and hay land is looking better than it has in many years.

“Even this year, some of the older stands look half decent,” Green confirmed. “I attribute that to maybe that snow that we had, there was quite a bit of moisture in that last snow.”

Ultimately, a good or bad year relies on six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains here sometimes—when Mother Nature feels like smiling down on producers, that is.

“When you think you got her beat, she lets you know she’s still the boss!” Green said with a laugh.