Warm and dry weather in the past week has helped Weyburn area farmers finally begin to make some headway on this year's harvest.

The harvest progress is still significantly behind most other years, but farmers say if the current weather holds for a couple more weeks, much of the harvest in the southeast area could get done.

According to Sask. Ag and Food, the harvest in the southeast area is 32 per cent combined, up from 19 per cent last week, with a further 28 per cent lying in swath or ready to be straight-combined. Provincially, harvest is around 30 per cent completed, far behind the five-year average of 78 per cent. A year ago at this time, the harvest was 95 per cent complete.

The poor weather that has delayed this year's crop from maturing and being harvested has also affected the provincial estimate for this year's harvest in Saskatchewan. Sask Ag and Food estimates producers will harvest a total of 25 million tonnes of grain, oilseed and specialty crops, which is a drop of seven per cent from the estimate made on Aug. 1 of this year, but is still six per cent above the 10-year average for production.

For Weyburn area producer Jeff Gaab, the recent stretch of nice weather has "definitely" helped him make real progress on his harvest.

"Before it seemed like progress was so slow, it seemed like you couldn't put in much for a day. We've moved quite a ways in the last few days and we're coming along fairly well," said Gaab, estimating he is between two-thirds and three-quarters finished his harvest.

In the acres he has left, only some late-seeded canola and durum still has to mature, but Gaab said if the weather holds he can finish up most of the rest of his fields before getting to those ones.

He has seen some grade loss due to the early frost this year, with wheat grading at No. 3 or 4, and some falling into the feed category. The yields, meanwhile, have been holding up very well.

"I know there's a lot of guys who need a couple weeks more at least, if not more. We had a lot of our crop seeded early and that's really helped out a lot. Another good two weeks of this weather would really go a long ways to helping us finish up," he said.

For Trossachs-area farmer Brian Nast, the weather has also been very helpful, noting he's about 80 per cent done his harvesting.

Unlike many other area producers, his crops haven't shown much effect from the August frost, and the quality has been coming through much better than he thought it would.

"Our durum is grading 2 and 3, and wheat is grading 1, 2 and 3. We couldn't ask for more. We were quite surprised," said Nast, adding the yields are also very good, for the most part above average.

The acres he has left to harvest include wheat, durum and canaryseed.

"We've taken half of the canaryseed off and it was running in the 20-bushel range," he said.

Sask Ag says the southeast is expected to see the lowest regional yield for such crops as spring wheat, oats, barley, flax, mustard, sunflowers and chickpeas.

Some of the weathering that has shown up in the early-harvested crops include mildew, sprouting, mold and staining, with wind and frost damage reported in the Weyburn area.

Insect damage has been reported, mostly from grasshoppers and sawflies, along with damages caused by migrating geese, cranes and ducks.

Pasture conditions have been drying since August, with 62 per cent of crop reporters now saying pastures are good to excellent, and nine per cent saying pastures are in poor shape.