CNS Canada –– The winter wheat harvest is underway in Manitoba, with farmers starting to combine the crop in the central region during the week ended Tuesday.
The latest crop report from Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development cited preliminary results showing average yields of about 60 bushels an acre for the winter wheat crop, with fusarium-damaged kernels present in harvested samples.
In the province’s southwest and central regions, fusarium levels in the winter wheat crop were at moderate to high levels.
Other disease concerns across the province were linked to blackleg and brown girdling in canola, as well as brown spot and bacterial blight in soybeans and edible beans.
Read Also
Most of Manitoba harvest wraps up for 2025
Manitoba Agriculture issued its final crop report of 2025, showing the overall provincewide harvest at 97 per cent complete as of Oct. 20. Nearly all major crops have finished combining, with 37 per cent of Manitoba’s sunflowers finished, plus 71 per cent of grain corn and small amounts of soybeans and potatoes left to do.
Other crops were advancing quickly due to hot and dry weather, though precipitation would be welcomed in some areas to help with grain filling and regrowth in hayfields and pastures, the province said.
Development remains variable, with some crops in the northwest still about two weeks behind the average stage for this time of year, the province noted.
Farmers were busy monitoring insect activity in their fields, with grasshopper numbers starting to increase in the southwest. In the northwest, bertha armyworm was reported in one canola field, with sunflower fields in the central region being monitored for sunflower beetle activity. Soybean defoliation due to a variety of insects was reported in the east.
Pastures were said to be in good condition in the southwest and northwest. Central-region pasture growth was adequate, though rain would help improve conditions, the province said. Haying, the report added, was in full swing.
