Crops Filling Out - Things Looking Up For Cattle

By Robert Thomas

Drier soil conditions coupled with heat started to show some negative effects in area crops. The extent of the damage is unknown as some localized areas have received much needed showers.

Durum beards are starting to turn brown - MJ Independent photo

The most recent rain storm on August 8th brought with it some damage in the Mortlach area.

Residents of the village report the hail did major damage to their gardens.

Rainfall totals reported are half an inch at Tuxford where there was no hail.

What's inside a head of durum - MJ Independent photo

Depending on when they were seeded durum crops are in the milk or dough stage. Soil moisture conditions, including reserves, will be vital to areas crops.

Drone surveys conducted by MJ Independent show no apparent insect damage to crops although crop dusting planes were spotted flying into the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport.

It should be noted our drone flights were limited in scope.

Other area crops continue to fill.

Canola is now past the flowering stage with it podding out.

Development stage of canola - MJ Independent photo

What’s inside the canola pod - MJ Independent photi

The weekly provincial crop report issued by Saskatchewan Agriculture reported the warmer weather helped crops but there were areas on the province with crop damage from high temperatures.

Provincially some crops have been damaged with premature ripening reported.

Deteriorating soil moisture conditions were reported.

Crop land topsoil moisture is listed as 51 percent adequate, 37 percent short and 12 percent very short.

Hay and pasture topsoil moisture conditions were 38 percent adequate, 41 percent short and 21 percent very short.

Harvest has begun on early to mature crops like Fall Rye.

Close up of the condition of lentils - MJ Independent photo

Chad MacPherson general manager of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association said 2020 appears to be a better year for hay and pastures than in 2018 and 2019.

“It varies region to region…most hay crops are average or slightly less than average,” MavPherson said.

“The feed situation is reasonably good throughout the province it’s better than last few years.”

Pasture near Moose Jaw from last week - MJ Independent file photo

MacPherson said in some areas rains came too late for hay crops but have helped grain crops.

A problem ranchers and producers might face this year is the distance from where herds are to where available hay is. Transportation (trucking) costs to move feed to herds then come into play.

“How far is it (feed) and is it viable to get it there,” he said. “If there is enough feed then there will be good stable conditions…it looks more affordable than in the last few years.”

Although there is no data yet as to the cost of feed MacPherson doesn't expect major price spikes in feed costs which benefits cattle producers.

Pasture conditions have deteriorated over the last few weeks as heat and winds have sucked up moisture.

“There is a good volume (of grass) for the most part for grazing.”

A big plus for the industry has been COVID - 19 illnesses which plagued processing facilities when workers got sick has subsided.

This week McDonalds, who outsourced their beef needs to foreign suppliers due to the processing facility bottleneck, announced they were once again using 100 percent Canadian beef.

At the present time there is still a backlog of cattle waiting processing but conditions are improving.

The processing bottleneck has lead to high prices in grocery stores while cattle producers have not benefited but have seen higher costs as cattle at prime processing weights have been held back due to reduced capacity.

“There is a large discrepancy between grocery store prices and what producers receive.”

At present there are large government dollars on the table for the meat processing sector.

This could bode well for Thunder Creek Pork's conversion of the XL Beef Plant into a cull sow pork processing facility. A conversion rumoured to be in the multi-millions of dollars for the mothballed facility.

Editor's Note: As a disclaimer our foray into the fields are funded by a grant from the Poltava based Ukrainian Grain Trading Company. We thank them for their generous support.