Harvest operations in the southeast district edged nearer the end this past week, with flax and sunflowers being the main crops yet to be finished off.

About 98 per cent of the crop has been combined, with another one per cent lying in swath or ready to be straight-combined.

The southeast remains ahead of the province as a whole, which has about 95 per cent of the harvest completed, according to Sask. Ag and Food. This year's harvest is well ahead of the five-year average of 83 per cent complete by this point.

Most of the progress in the southeast district was made in oats, flax, canola, mustard, canaryseed and chickpeas. With a hard frost this week, this will begin the maturing process for the sunflower crop.

Fall work is underway throughout the area, such as planting fall rye and winter wheat, hauling grain and preparing fields for the spring, although some fields are too dry or too warm yet to do fertilizing. Baling and hauling straw and hay is ongoing, and some producers are fencing off stubble fields to graze cattle in.

Pasture conditions have continued to deteriorate due to the dry conditions, with about 50 per cent of crop reporters rating pastures as very poor. Water supplies are also dwindling, with 65 per cent of reporters saying water supplies are adequate, down from 91 per cent in late August.

Rainfall in the past week was scattered and spotty, with most RMs reporting no measurable rain, and others only one or two millimetres.