Harvest is winding down in the Weyburn area and throughout the province for another year, with around 99 per cent of the crop in the bin.

A few days of warm weather has helped farmers take off the remainder of the crop, and while sunflowers are the predominant crop still standing, there are still some chickpeas in the fields as well as the odd cereal or flax field left to combine, says Weyburn agrologist Elaine Moats.

Moisture continues to cause sprouting on unharvested crops. Sprouting and mold in the southern spring wheat crop has caused Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food to lower their quality estimates since last week, with just half of the crop expected to grade No. 1.

"Harvest results have varied with a whole range of yields, and a wide range in quality," said Moats. "Canola, lentils and peas appear to be the most consistent crops with average to above-average yields. The quality of the peas and canola is quite good, while the quality of lentils has varied."

The hardest-hit crops in terms of quality were wheat and durum, the agrologist adds. Sprouting hit those crops hard, while diseases like ascochyta blight, sclerotinia, and a black mold disease called botrytis hurt chickpeas.

Currently farmers are doing a lot of fall field work, such as tillage, herbicide application and fertilizer application. Concerns about the cost of fuel, however, are causing some farmers to delay the application of fertilizer.

Some fall planting has taken place in the Weyburn area for winter wheat and fall rye, and before the ground freezes up, Moats expects some farmers will plant fall-seeded canola.

The canola has a plastic coating which allows it to be seeded in the late fall months without germinating and emerge in the spring. Producers who planted this crop last year had mixed results - some fields turned out beautifully, spreading out harvest work for those farmers; others saw their canola sprout too soon because of mild weather with disastrous consequences.