The hot dry weather in the last week helped dry out the surface soil moisture in the district on both crop and pasture land in the Weyburn area, according to Elaine Moats Monday. Moats is the extension agrologist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, Food and Rural Revitalization.

Some localized areas in the Weyburn region received rainfall in the past week but by and large, crop conditions are dry, she said.

"One man said the moisture levels here depend on which 10 x10 cloud you stood under. Rain was very scattered. One area got an inch of rain."

Last week's heat helped bring the crop along, she said, but it's a two-edged sword because the extremely hot weather and strong winds also helped dry it out.

"Even on cropland, producers will be more reliant on timely rains this year than they would like to be. Rain any day would be good," she said.

While surface moisture levels are drier, the subsurface levels for cropland is still good, thanks to the snow and spring rains, she said.

However, established hay and pasture crops like grass and alfalfa that require a huge amount of moisture didn't get replenished, she said. Pastures are also starting to mature a little quicker than people would like, she said.

Haying is general throughout the region, starting last week, said Moats.

"It's a little early for what we expect to see. It's usually not going full steam until the first of July." Producers are seeing brown leaves and brown stems, she said.

While producers are generally finished seeding, crop conditions are scruffy and uneven to very uniform, said Moats.

The early seeded canola crop is just starting to bloom and a few early wheat crops are going into the boot and starting to head.

"The crop is probably two weeks behind where we would like it to be at this time of the year," she said. Cool soil conditions were not ideal this spring for germination, she said.

Spraying for grasshoppers is general throughout the district, she said.

"The number of insects is quite high and they're still hatching so it's difficult to gauge the situation right now." A lot of producers were holding back on the spraying until more grasshoppers were hatched but they have to balance that against crop damage, she said.

Spraying is heavier along the edges of fields next to grassy areas, and in fields which grew grassy crops like wheat or barley last year which tend to be more susceptible to damage, she said.

Moats said the flea beetle population is beginning to die off. They are not as prevalent as they were three or four weeks ago, she said.