With no end in sight for the hot, dry weather in southeast Saskatchewan, the general harvest is well underway throughout the area with early reports of quality showing some crops in good condition.

There has been no general rainfall in the area for some time now, and temperatures have remained steady in the mid to high-30s for the last few weeks, bringing all crops on to maturity at least two weeks ahead of most years.

According to Sask. Agriculture and Food's crop report, harvest is 13 per cent across the province, and in the southeast area, about 16 per cent of the crop is off and another 24 per cent is lying in swath or is ready for straight-combining. Agrologist Elaine Moats put the estimate closer to 10 per cent complete in this area.

This includes many peas, lentils, winter wheat and fall rye crops, with some spring wheat and durum now underway along with some canola.

The yields vary widely on some of the early-harvested crops, such as ranging from eight to 30 bushels an acre for peas, said Moats, adding it's too early yet to know how the quality is shaping up, particularly for cereal crops.

Reached on his swather in the Khedive-Pangman area, farmer Ed Howse described the crops he's seen so far.

"It looks remarkably well considering what they've been through. If it doesn't rain and downgrade the crops, we should have a good quality crop," he said, noting he is just about done all his swathing this week. He estimates his harvest operation will move to combining by later this week.

An organic farmer, he has already swathed his crop of kamut wheat and flax and was in the midst of doing his spring wheat on Monday afternoon. While the crops he has swathed was seeded earlier, he acknowledged the later-seeded crops have suffered under the heat and lack of moisture, such as barley and oats.

"What I've looked at looks good, but I'll have a better idea when I start to combine on yield and quality," said Howse.

In the Fillmore district, producer Blair Stewart, also owner of Fill-More Seeds and their five grain elevators, said his harvesting was progressing well due to the dryness and heat.

There has been some damage to the yield of crops like canola, but wheat samples that have been coming in look of average to below-average quality.

Stewart estimated probably 80 per cent of the peas and lentils are done in the Fillmore area, with spring wheat and durum harvesting underway. If there's little to no rain in the balance of August, he estimates a lot of the harvest will be in the bin by Labour Day.

Asked if grasshoppers were a factor in harvesting, he said they will be a factor in the storage of peas and lentils, and later for the cereal grains, unless farmers are able to clean them out of their crops.

Besides the hoppers, sawflies are also causing damages in the southeast, in some fields ranging from 50 per cent to 100 per cent, as they cause the wheat stalks to fall over on the ground.

Pastures are drying up in the heat, and some producers are having to provide supplemental feed to their cattle, and in some cases are hauling water.