With seeding of crops in the southeast mostly completed for this growing season, the area received a lot of rain in the past week, and with temperatures starting to warm up, crop growth is well underway for all crop varieties in the area.

"There's really fabulous crop growth right now. There have been reports in the past week of averages between half an inch to three inches of rain," said crops specialist Elaine Moats, adding that in the drier areas, seeding is mostly done, including the RMs around the Weyburn area.

"The weather is making the decision for people who are running out of time to seed. In the Weyburn district, there is crop spraying as the weather permits, and people are getting haying equipment ready," said Moats.

The average of rainfall for the southeast area was 51 millimetres, with amounts varying throughout the RMs in the region. The lowest recorded amount was 36 mm in the RM of Scott and parts of The Gap.

Other rainfall amounts included 44 mm in the RM of Brokenshell, 49 mm in Fillmore, 40 in Wellington, 58 mm in Weyburn, 107 mm in the RM of Cymri, 96 in Tecumseh, 36 mm in the RM of Francis, 72 mm in Lake Alma, 49 mm in Surprise Valley, and around 48 mm in the RM of Laurier.

Moats noted some areas have excess water, and in some low-lying areas the ground has standing water, washing out whatever crops were seeded there.

With weed growth, the main problems are where the weeds are coming up with the crops, or are even growing faster than the crops.

"It's an issue of timing, how to be effective with spraying without damaging the crops," said Moats.

Insects have not been much of a problem in the young growing season, but producers need to be aware that traps have begun seeing evidence of diamondback moths in the Weyburn area. Moats said it's too early to tell if these moths blew in from the south or if they over-wintered here. If they become a problem, they will particularly affect canola, brown and oriental mustard plants. Yellow mustard tends not to be affected as much.

As far as other insect problems, the weather will dictate which ones will be a problem. If the weather stay warm and moist, this will encourage disease in grasshoppers, but will be ideal conditions for wheat midge.

Crop development at this point is behind for some crops, especially the early-seeded varieties, due to the cool weather experienced in late April and early May.

Overall, said Moats, "this is closer to a normal year, although we'd like to see the crops further advanced than it is. Some of those canola crops that were seeded in late April should be a lot further along, so we certainly need warm weather to help the plants catch up."

With forecasts for hot temperatures a possibility by the weekend, Moats noted this may be a problem with wet soils which may bake at the surface, which would interfere with crops trying to emerge, if they haven't already.