Large numbers of aphids were unexpectedly found in the pea crop in the Weyburn area last week. The development left some suppliers unable to provide all the pesticide that farmers needed, as quickly as they needed it.

"It was a rude surprise," said Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food's extension agrologist Elaine Moats on Tuesday.

"Aphids are a typical problem in Manitoba in peas but we haven't seen the problem in Saskatchewan," she said. "I don't think anyone expected to have to spray for aphids in their peas."

Cooler growing conditions here, usually, mean the problem doesn't crop up but the high temperatures of the last one and one half months has really promoted the aphids, she said.

Aphids double their population in five to seven days and farmers are finding some pretty significant numbers out there, she said.

Pea acreage in the Weyburn area has increases steadily over the past few years with this year being one of the largest. The crop is enticing because grasshoppers usually don't like it so they reduce spraying costs.

This year, said Moats, the very early seeded pea crops are growing well and still look good but later-seeded crops are heat damaged and are starting to mature.

All crops around the area that got timely rains are looking quite good, said Moats.

But the good crops are very scattered, just like the rain that fell this summer, she said. One farmer might have received enough rain as needed but another one just down the road has had little rain since early June.

Drought conditions are widespread in the southeast area, except for a strip on the eastern side of Carlyle all the way to Yorkton, she said. Last week some areas received only a couple of tenths of an inch of rain while others got a life-line in the form of 1.5-2 inches.

Sask Ag's weekly crop report for the week of July 20 says 54 per cent of winter wheat crops in the region are good to excellent, while 48 per cent of fall rye is good to excellent and about 34 per cent of spring wheat is good to excellent.

Durum shows 24 per cent good to excellent, while the figures are 36 per cent for oats, 30 per cent for barley, 18 per cent for triticale, 27 per cent for flax, 28 per cent for canola, 26 per cent for mustard, 63 per cent for sunflowers, 38 per cent for lentils, 42 per cent for peas, 35 per cent for canary seed and 37 per cent for chickpeas.

Crops are showing stress in different ways, said Moats. In some cases they look uniform but are short. "We see them all the way to the extreme where the crop is sparse, faded to pale 4, with very few leaves and tillers and is very short."

Moats said some poor crops are being salvaged for feed already. "Rain on a crop that's started to die rather than to mature doesn't do any good." Extra feed could be needed this year if farmers hang on to their calf crops over the winter because of the closed U.S. border, she predicted.