The owner of Prairie Sky Crop Solutions in Niverville says the harvest could get underway late this week. Reg Friesen says some crops are just about ready.

"The winter wheat is probably going to be harvested, my guess is, late this week. There is also some early barley out there. Spring wheat, in general. is probably going to be another week or two yet for some of the early stuff."

Friesen says crops have benefited a lot from the early July rains, although he notes some parts of the region got excessive amounts that led to a lot of water damage. These include the Aubigny and St. Malo areas. But, generally, Friesen says crops are looking much better than they did at the start of the month. He hopes the rain came in time to help the grain fill out.

"I hope so. You never really know until the combine gets in there. Last year, we were lacking rain also, the cereals were quite short, the canola was looking thin and quite short, and it actually turned out that it was one of our best harvests. So you never really know until the combine gets in there, but I'm hoping it came in time. I think it did."

Friesen says one major challenge this year has been insects.

"We've been dealing with insects right from the emergence of the crop to today. It's gone from flea beetles to cutworms to grasshoppers. Again, not everywhere, but in the places that were hot, we never quit. There's been a lot of border control of insects to stop them from coming in the field. So, that's been a bit of a challenge this year.