MarketsFarm – After a hot and dry summer which scorched all of Western Canada, pulses are ready to come off the fields in Alberta.
“The south is going pretty strong. South of Calgary is already pretty much done on peas. Quite a bit of lentils would be done already, too,” said Alberta Pulse Growers chair Robert Semeniuk. “Central (Alberta) is just starting and then when you go to (the) north, they’ll probably be starting (the harvest) early next week.”
Semeniuk added that approximately 1.9 million pulse acres were seeded in Alberta for the 2020-21 crop year.
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Varied precipitation and warm temperatures were generally beneficial for crop development across Alberta during the week ended July 8, according to the latest provincial crop report released July 11.
As of July 27, 18.2 per cent of dry peas, 20.5 per cent of lentils and 11.8 per cent of chickpeas were rated in good to excellent condition according to the Province of Alberta. Only 22.4 per cent of the normal dry pea yield has been harvested as of that date. The province is scheduled to issue its next crop report on Friday.
“Yellow and green peas have probably taken the brunt of the heat. Yield wise, from what I’ve heard in the south, they weren’t expecting much and then there was even disappointment on that,” Semeniuk said. “What they were hoping they would get, they didn’t…I’m hearing 50 to 60 per cent (of the average) on green peas (in central Alberta).”
The lentil crop is Alberta is showing more promise.
“(Lentils) like the heat more. From the few numbers I’ve heard, about a 30 per cent reduction from normal. Fava beans are probably going to be in that 50 to 60 per cent of normal also…If we end up with 60 per cent of average, that’s probably where we’ll fall,” said Semeniuk.
“I’m hoping every farmer in Alberta gets good weather and they can pull off every bushel they can possibly scavenge,” he added.
