Saskatchewan Agriculture’s special crops specialist says that lentils are in good condition in that province.  Photo: Thinkstock

Pulse weekly outlook: Saskatchewan crops growing well despite threats

MarketsFarm – Pulse crops across Saskatchewan are growing well for the most part, but not in every corner of the province, according to the province’s own specialist. Dale Risula, special crops specialist for Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture, said this year’s pulse crops are looking much better than those in last year’s drought, which he called […] Read more

Dry conditions in June and July will have more of an effect on corn than soybeans, but improvements in genetics should help keep yields from dipping drastically.

Give thanks to drought-tolerant corn hybrids

Modern genetics and management should help keep corn yields in the three-digit range despite prolonged dry conditions

Extended dryness is affecting corn and soybean fields across much of Ontario’s main growing regions. Such conditions allow decades of improvements in drought tolerance genetics to shine.  “I remember in 1988, the tap was basically off until early July. It was two months of the driest early season on record,” says Russ Barker, Pioneer sales […] Read more


File photo of a village in northeastern Uganda’s remote Karamoja region. (Guenterguni/iStock/Getty Images)

More than 200 people die as drought ravages northeast Uganda

Kampala | Reuters — More than 200 people have died from hunger this month in northeastern Uganda, where a prolonged drought and rampant insecurity have left more than half a million facing starvation, a local official and a charity worker said. Inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, the semi-arid and remote Karamoja region on the border with […] Read more

A Canada-wide map of drought conditions. Photo credit: Canadian Drought Monitor

Drought conditions remain in Alberta, Saskatchewan

MarketsFarm — After copious amounts of precipitation alleviated the most severe drought conditions in Saskatchewan and Alberta, there were still some areas dealing with extreme dryness entering July, according to the Canadian Drought Monitor. At the end of June, only 22 per cent of the Prairie region was classified in the Abnormally Dry (D0) to […] Read more


Flea beetles in canola seedlings. (Canola Council of Canada video screengrab via YouTube)

Flea beetles an issue in parts of Saskatchewan

MarketsFarm — Delays to spring seeding in some regions of Saskatchewan, such as the northeast, have opened the door for infestations of flea beetles, according to provincial pest management specialist James Tansey. Canola crops that were planted later than normal are suffering from flea beetles, he said. Extremely late-seeded canola has been relatively free from […] Read more

File photo of a pea crop south of Ethelton, Sask. on Aug. 1, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

Pulse weekly outlook: Peas, lentils faring well but threats remain

MarketsFarm — Growing conditions for peas and lentils in Saskatchewan during the spring can be described as variable. While western parts of the province continued to endure dry conditions carried over from last year’s drought, regions in the east were drenched with near-continuous rainfall to go along with below-normal temperatures. Lionel Ector, president of Diefenbaker […] Read more

(Government of Alberta via Flickr)

Rains bring much-needed moisture to Alberta’s south

MarketsFarm — Rains across southern and central regions of Alberta were both much-needed and well-received during the week ended Tuesday. Both regions received 20 to 50 millimetres of precipitation, according to the province’s weekly crop report released Friday. The amount of rain that fell onto the south region was equivalent to the amount of precipitation […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Drought worsens in Alberta, but eastern Prairies wet

MarketsFarm — Highly varied precipitation across the Canadian Prairies in May saw drought conditions worsen in southern Alberta while parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan were becoming too wet, according to the latest federal Drought Monitor report. The report, released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) for the period ended May 31, showed that overall, 19 […] Read more

(Vonkara1/iStock/Getty Images)

StatCan releases satellite crop vegetation data

MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada’s crop condition assessment program (CCAP) on Thursday released its weekly normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values from April 11 to May 29 — telling the tale of weather extremes in the Prairie provinces. As of the fourth week of May, seeding was 95 per cent complete in Alberta, compared to the […] Read more