Fall harvest continues this week with most crops looking fairly good in the Westman Region despite the patchy rain this summer.  Grain producer, Don Wickham, farms in the Municipality of Two Borders with crop land just north west of Waskada and up in the Napinka area. 

“We’ve got some canola down and our oats are down, I know my neighbor has actually quite a bit of wheat done, and I think the quality is pretty good. The yields are pretty decent too, I guess.” 

“We were fortunate enough here that we didn’t get too much hail, I know some got the odd sprinkle but actually the crops look amazing, really,” he says. 

When it comes to insects, Wickham says there were certainly hotspots for grasshoppers. “When we were putting up our hay, some of our land, it was good on one side of the field and then you go to the other side and you wonder if there’s going to be anything left!” 

“I did some for my neighbor over here and it was a real hotspot.  There were lots of grasshoppers in there,” he says.  “There’s been the odd guy doing some spraying around the edge of the fields, but some guys are worried about their pastures.  The grasshoppers are eating more than the cows are, I think!” 

Over in the Napinka area, Wickham says their alfalfa and wheat are looking fairly decent as well.  “We’ve had some good shots of rain this year,” he says, “not a big amount at times but just enough to keep ‘er going.”