Farmers hurry to finish harvest after rain

September 30, 2025, 12:24 pm
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After a week and a half of rain, farmers in Southeast Saskatchewan and Southwest Manitoba are rushing to finish harvest, seeing good yields, but in some cases, a downgrade in quality due to a lengthy period of warm, rainy weather.

“The weather that we had was too long, too wet, and too warm. Most grain wants to sprout in those conditions. Certain varieties of wheat, for example, have better resistance to sprouting than others, but with that long of that kind of weather that we had, I would be surprised if there wasn’t some sprouts in every variety of wheat that is still in the ground,” says Wendy Leeds, and agronomist with Sharpe’s Crop Services in Moosomin.

She noted that this has a large impact on the quality and value of grain.

“It ends up being really unfortunate for producers because that sprouting downgrades it. We could have cases where number one grade wheat, the kind used for quality bread and flour, becomes downgraded to a feed grade, and given to animals. Because of that, wheat prices are quite poor right now, so producers won’t get nearly as much value as they could from the crop they have left standing.”

Thankfully, a lot of farmers got a hefty amount of their wheat crop off before the rain started.

“It will be super frustrating for producers. Thankfully we had a really good run of crop prior to this, so maybe there will be some options for blending,” says Leeds. “Really, it will just depend on how bad the sprouting is and it will be a field-by-field basis for producers. It’s going to depend on what variety they grew and how much sprout there is. I know there has also been some canola sprouting, but again there are different levels of grading, so we’ll just have to see how it looks as more crop comes off the fields.

“Nobody wants to lose value and quality on what was such a beautiful crop, but that’s just the kind of season Mother Nature gave us, along with the strange warm and rainy weather.”

Before the rain and storms that hit the region, this year’s crop was one of the nicest in years.

“It still is a very good crop in terms of yield,” said Leeds. “Yields will still be very good even with all of the rain, it’s just the quality that will take a hit. Canola isn’t as bad, I know that the high moisture can reduce weight of canola, but I’m still optimistic yields will be good. The value of canola is going down a bit because crops are coming out of the ground and people are seeing that yields will be high. Hopefully it keeps relatively good value because canola has always been our cash-crop.”

Other factors in Saskatchewan and the rest of the world are also affecting the prices of crops.

“Canola, wheat and most other crops are being affected by tariffs, as well as the conversation that yields are good as the harvest comes off the fields. There are also factors oversees, I believe places like Australia had a very good crop this year. Like always, the world affects our little dot in Moosomin, Saskatchewan. The better the yield around the world, crop prices will be a little less because of supply and demand and everything else,” she said.

“Obviously the tariffs aren’t helping at all, but I think that most farmers know that there will be some movement in that over the winter. The issue will be that our input prices are really high right now. The fertilizer pricing for producers has come back, and usually there’s a summer reset, but that was much higher than it normally was. The world is really short on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium right now, and so that is going to really affect what farmers have to pay for input. They’re kind of getting a double-whammy for outlook right now.”

Leeds says that farmers are used to these ups and downs, and may want to store their grain to see if prices improve.

“Farmers are used to this, and lots of things can change as the months go on, but for anybody that needs cash right now, it’s kind of a tough market right now. If you can hold on to your grain for a little bit longer, and wait to see if input prices go down a little, I would. Sometimes demand goes up as supply goes down, and that can drive value up a bit.”

She says that warm, dry weather that hit the region last week is perfect for finishing up harvest, but there’s a ways to go yet.

“If we can keep the weather we are having currently, that would be great for producers, and it looks like we are going to have the same pattern for a few weeks. Most farmers need a good two to three weeks to finish, we were only about 40 per cent of the way done when the rain came, so we still have a bit of chewing ahead of us.”

“We just kind of got started again after our 10 day break so we don’t have a real feel for what it’s going to look like but certainly the weather has taken some of the shine off,” says John Van Eaton who farms in the Maryfield area.

Van Eaton says crops were extremely nice before the extended period of rain took hold.

“I don’t know if I would say once in a lifetime, but they were pretty nice,” he says. “Right up there with some of the best crops I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure. We haven’t done any canola quite yet but it did look good, we will see what happens now. We’ve got a little bit of wheat to finish and then canola and flax.

“We broke down a little bit. We were straight cutting so the straw breaks down and it deteriorates the seed and some of it is quickly sprouting. We’ve bred plants and crops to germinate quickly and get out of the ground quickly, so when we have a number of days with warm, humid weather they think that’s what they are supposed to do.

“I’m hoping that it’s still a three and not feed, but I don’t think it will be any better than a three and of course before the rain it was number one and had pretty good protein and nice yield.

“A couple of neighbors have just started into canola and said there’s a little sprouting there as well. Then you lose weight because the rain will cause the weight of the kernels to go down, so if canola was weighing 55 pounds before the rain and 50 now, you lose 10 per cent of your yield right there.

For weather, Van Eaton says they need “probably two weeks weather in the of mid 20s with a little bit of breeze and not much humidity. Two weeks will just about do it I think.”

Aside from the weather, farmers are also dealing with some factors that are affecting price.

“Certainly canola prices are affected by Chinese tariffs, feed grain prices are more affected by the U.S. corn crop. Certainly tariffs play a part in that and it would be nice to have no tariffs, and we definitely need that especially with canola. There’s a big crop in other parts of the world and there is just a whole bunch of things in the mix that affect prices more than just local supply and demand. That doesn’t have very much to do with it anymore.

“I think anyone in this business accepts that there is a fair amount of risk, but you just try to mitigate those risks and do the best you can.”

Hebert Grain Ventures has crops planted from Ryerson to Whitewood, including peas, rye, wheat, barley, and canola. Jeff Warkentine says they were about 65 per cent through their harvest last week.

“We need two good weeks yet,” he said. “Our yields have been good. The quality was excellent before the rain and it’s a little less after the rain obviously, but there was a lot of quantity there.

“We had the smoke this summer, some timely rains, we didn’t get the excessive heat in July that we’ve gotten the last few years. From what we’ve seen so far that’s made a big difference.

“Other than the rain delays, harvest has been pretty good. We could have done without the rain and weather the last seven to eight days, but you can’t control mother nature.”

Cory Woywada with Parrish and Heimbecker in Moosomin and Virden says he’s seeing the same thing at the elevator—crops that went down in quality due to extended rain.

“We are seeing wheat that is standing or swathed that is now lower quality,” he says. “If it’s below 200 it just makes it feed because there is no market for it. We’re seeing some in the 220 to 260 range, and we’re seeing a lot under 150. So there was a lot of damage.

“Same with canola, we are seeing some sprouts in canola, which you usually don’t see, but I don’t know if anyone has really gotten into anything that was swathed.

“But I think with the cereals we were probably 80 per cent done anyway before the rain, so we just have a little bit left out there.

“Before the rain, it was all number 1, and it varied from 11 to 16—really nice, heavy weight. We are seeing big yields on everything, probably the best we have ever seen. I think it cooled off at the right time and we got the August rain there and everything filled up.”