Winter wheat and fall rye harvest is expected to start this week in some areas of the province.

According Manitoba Agriculture's crop report, many winter wheat crops in the central and eastern regions have reached maturity, and in the southwest, they're at the hard dough stage. So far disease pressure has been low.

"We were reporting a few weeks ago in terms of starting to see some stripe and leaf rust appearing in some of our winter wheat crops," says Manitoba Agriculture cereal specialist, Pam De Rocquigny. "For the most part those levels remain low... In terms of our winter wheat, so far through our surveys, we're finding low levels of fusarium head blight symptoms. So that's good, considering last year we definitely had some issues with fusarium head blight in our winter wheat."

Many crops are advancing quickly thanks to the hot and humid weather. Canola has reached the podding stage in the eastern and western regions, however, canola development varies in the central area. Sunflowers are also starting to flower, with only some lygus bugs spotted in the southwest.

But it's not all good news.

Thunderstorms throughout the past week helped areas like Carberry and Deloraine with some precipitation, but areas out east now have too much water. Some fields have standing water and drowned crop. Plus, heavy rain, winds, and hail has lodged many crops across the province.

"[We might be] seeing higher levels [of lodging] maybe than in other years, but that's something we don't really keep track of, in terms of how much lodging occurs from year to year. But it seems to be that especially in our spring cereals, lodging has definitely been of a concern," De Rocquigny says.

Otherwise, crops in the province are rated as being in good condition.

You can view the full report here.