18 Oct 09-November combining?

Some observers have been expressing overly optimistic timelines for getting the 2009 crop in the bin. The crop report from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture that came out October 8 said, “Producers need several days of sunny, warm weather so they can complete harvesting.” The crop report of October 15 reiterated that timeline of several days. By the Ministry’s own estimate, there is still 23 per cent of the crop in the field. That’s millions of acres. While a lot of producers in the south are done or nearly done, there’s a lot left to do in the northern grainbelt and at this time of year, progress can be difficult. Saturday was unseasonably warm – just a great day for this time of year, yet in many cases there wasn’t enough drying for producers to get rolling. Showers on Sunday set everything back again. The delays and uncertainty are hard on the nerves. When producers do get rolling, it’s typically tough slogging and you can’t run many hours of the day. It isn’t abnormal for some combining to be done in November and that could be the case again this year. It’s certainly going to take more than “several days” of sunny weather to get everything in the bin. I’m Kevin Hursh.