Harvesting equipment is a common sight this week in southeastern Manitoba as we have had a return to warm, drier weather. Earl Bargen is the provincial Farm Production Adviser in Steinbach. He says progress in the spring cereals is quite varied.

"The sense I'm getting is that's kind of farm-by-farm. I got some reports from the southern parts, the Vita area, where more cereals have come off. Some of the guys I talked to, they were just going to be starting today (Monday) and other guys are kind of in that 20-30%. You know if I had to estimate, I would say in that 20-30% range for spring wheat and for oats too."

Bargen says early yield reports appear to be okay.

"For Hard Red Spring (wheat), I'm hearing in that 50-plus (bushels per acre), I'm hearing a bit higher numbers from other areas but that could be the different types of wheat. On the quality side of things, I've heard that the protein is a little lower than guys would like, kind of around 13%. Again, we are in the early days. There is a lot of crop out there so that could change."

Bargen encourages soybean growers to check their fields for infestations of the two-spotted spider mite which is common in dry years. He is seeing fields where there are parts that have turned yellow and died. Bargen some of that could be from the dry weather but adds the mites are definitely around this year and are at least partly to blame.