Southeast area farmers are breathing a sigh of relief that a warning of frost did not materialize over the weekend, as crops progress towards maturity and swathing is underway generally throughout the region.

A killing frost hit much of Saskatchewan on Aug. 20 last year, which caused a major downgrading in many crops down to feed grade.

After more than two weeks of extreme heat, cooler temperatures came into the area, and warnings of possible frost were issued for the weekend. In Weyburn, the lowest temperature reached was 5.5 on Saturday, while one area farmer said the mercury dipped as low as 3 degrees.

"I don't think it stayed that low very long," said Creelman-area farmer John van Staveren.

He said area crops are looking good for the most part, but added, "There might be a few surprises come harvest time, as some crops might not be as good maybe we first thought they would be. There was the excess moisture at first and then the heat took over."

Van Staveren said there is a lot of swathing of fall rye and winter wheat ongoing in the area , and some combining has also begun. On his farm, he's harvesting peas, and in a little while will start on canola, barley and spring wheat.

Crop specialist Elaine Moats said while 3 degrees is fairly cool, most field crops are hardy enough to handle that, and only actual frost will cause damage. She noted some vegetables are sensitive to cool temperatures.

"We've certainly been seeing progress in the maturity of the crops. The hot temperatures we had recently have really hastened the growth and maturity, perhaps to the detriment of crop quality, but we'll have to see if that materializes," said Moats.

Some of the crops that were seeded in mid to late April should be ready by now for harvesting, she noted, and said swathing is generally underway throughout the Weyburn region.

The southeast has about three per cent of the 2005 crop combined so far, and 10 per cent is lying in swath or is ready to be straight-combined. Fall crops are the furthest ahead, with 58 per cent of fall rye and 46 per cent of winter wheat combined, along with 24 per cent of peas from spring-seeded crops.

Peas are the main crop being harvested right now, and to a lesser degree lentils, and some early-seeded canola and mustard, barley and wheat.

For Tribune producer David Pattyson, he was preparing to head out to swath his canola on Tuesday morning, and noted swathing is well underway for peas and some lentils.

He added the low temperatures "gave everybody a bad memory about last year" but fortunately the frost never materialized.

"The hot weather set some crops back rather badly, but generally speaking, the crops are in good to very good condition," said Pattyson.

The Tribune area is a bit on the dry side right, he added, but noted even if rain came, it would be too late for many crops to do much good, although those with canola in the swath wouldn't mind some rain to take the green count down.

Pattyson noted there are some sawfly damages occurring in spring wheat, so he and a number of other producers are swathing it to head off the possibility of the insect damaging the wheat beyond recovery.

In the meantime, more moderate temperatures have returned to the area, and Moats said this will help those plants that haven't matured yet to finish off properly instead of drying up and shrivelling while still green.

"As we get closer to harvest, there are less things that can go wrong. If there's disease, it's probably there already," said Moats, adding if a crop is still green there may be some possibility of damage from insects, but not a lot this year. She noted the high humidity and heat has really slowed down the grasshoppers in the area, and while there are some bertha armyworms appearing, it's not a significant threat in this part of the province.

Haying is for the most part done in the Weyburn area, with the first cut baled, and some farmers are going on to bale around sloughs and outer areas, "so there's lots of bales to haul, and some people are still making silage."

Not enough harvest has taken place to know how yields are coming, but Moats is predicting quality "will be fairly variable this harvest."