Farmers across southeast Saskatchewan are racing to get the 2019 crop into the bin, but are dealing with start and stop conditions thanks to rain over the past few weeks. 

"Our situation is I swath some crop, and I still took that off tough, and we can’t seem to get our crop to dry down, and a lot of us are under quite a bit of stress,” explained Dale Paslawski, who farms in the Cedoux area. 

According to the most recent crop report from the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, the Weyburn area itself received 24 millimetres of rain last week, with Stoughton getting 30 millimetres. Further east, near Lampman, rain gauges showed rainfalls of 45 millimetres.

The delays due to the rain mean many producers are behind where they normally would be for this time of year. Paslawski says he is generally 25 to 50 percent finished the harvest by this time of year, but right now, he is around 15 percent complete. The five year average for this time of year is 40 percent, while producers in the southeast have roughly 16 percent in the bin.

“We’re watching the forecast which doesn’t look too good, but that's just the dilemma we’re in right now,” added Paslawski.

While the rain has impacted the harvest this year, both in the timing, quality and yield, it has helped with topsoil moisture levels.

The crop report shows the southeast has 90 percent of cropland topsoil moisture rated as adequate or surplus, while 82 percent of hay land and pasture topsoil moisture is adequate.