Many producers were still assessing whether the frost of Aug. 20 produced much damage to their crops, when a light frost was reported overnight Monday in the Weyburn area.

The southeast area was generally cloudy and cool in the past week, with some precipitation recorded during the week as well to delay further the crop development and the start of the 2004 harvest.

As of the long weekend, about three per cent of this year's crop has been combined and 14 per cent is lying in the swath or is ready to be straight-combined. At the provincial level, about five per cent of the crop has been combined.

This is significantly behind the five-year average, in which harvest is 41 per cent complete by this point. The harvest is furthest ahead in the southwest, where 14 per cent of the crop has been combined.

In the southeast, fall crops are the furthest ahead, with 14 per cent of winter wheat and 15 per cent of fall rye combined, along with 18 per cent of peas, 10 per cent of lentils and eight per cent of mustard.

The damage caused by the Aug. 20 frost is still uncertain, with a complete measure unlikely until the harvest has been completed for the year.

According to a crop development specialist with Sask. Ag and Food, Sherrilyn Phelps, temperatures generally have to go down to -4 or lower to cause damage by freezing the water in the plant's cells. Frost damage varies by type and according to what stage of development a crop is in. for example, wheat is more tolerant than barley, and barley more than oats.

For cereals in the mid-dough stage, temperatures down to -4 can result in kernel shrinkage and bran frost, while in some experiments wheat, oats and barley in the late dough stage can withstand temperatures down to -8 for one hour with little yield reduction. In most cereal crops, it takes seven to 10 days to evaluate frost damage.

With crops like canola and mustard, the leaves can tolerate down to -3.5 to -4.5, but the flowers and developing pods can be affected by -2 to -3. If the majority of a crop is affected by a frost, it should be swathed immediately.

Insects were also a source of major damage to some crops in the past week, with about half of crop reporters citing damage by grasshoppers, saw flies or aphids. Some farmers are swathing their crops early to combat sawfly damage.

Moisture conditions also improved on some crop lands, and went into surplus position in some cases, with 10 per cent of crop reporters rating topsoil as having surplus moisture. For pastures, 93 per cent of reporters said topsoil moisture was adequate on hay land and in pastures.