The province is reporting that seeding in the southeast is just over 50 per cent complete.

Crops Extension Specialist Matt Struthers says the Moose Jaw area is looking a bit better.

"The greater Moose Jaw area is probably farther along than the rest of the southeast. We didn't get hammered so hard with a lot of that late snowfall and that spring storm we had. Things are drying up here a little bit better, especially as you move farther west."

He notes as you go east of Moose Jaw, towards Regina, things are little bit wetter. There's still some standing water and the same trend follows if you go southeast versus southwest of town as well. Producers to the west of town are reporting that fields are getting a bit dry, and are welcoming this week's rain.

The high winds this week have caused delays with spraying.

"It's just too strong to put any product down," commented Struthers. "That would be holding off any weed control or maybe even some early flea beetle control that's popping up around the Moose Jaw area. Also, that wind is going to be accompanied with maybe some warmer days and that's going to be drying out that topsoil moisture quite rapidly. Producers who have crop in the ground, and maybe that crop's emerging, that wind is going stress that plant just by drying it out."

The weekly crop report says early-seeded crops are starting to emerge and are generally looking good, however flea beetles are starting to become an issue.

"That warm weather got them hopping around and causing some issues. Luckily, canola is one of the later crops to go in and so those flea beetles are off eating something else before they hit those canola crops," explained Struthers. "The canola crops have the moisture to get themselves nice and big before those flea beetles can do some damage. Producers will be out there watching their crop very closely to make sure that the flea beetle pressure doesn't break that economic threshold and if it gets close they'll go out there and apply some products to keep those pests down."

Struthers adds that pasture conditions have improved this year from previous years due to some late spring storms bringing much-needed moisture.

"For much of the southeast, another good trend going forward is their pastures are looking strong. The same with the southwest. That late spring storm really helped a lot of those pastures and is a really good thing to see. Where we're still seeing very poor pastures is up into the west central and the northwest region. Those two regions really need a good soaking rain coming here soon to allow those pastures to use that moisture in addition with the heat that they're likely to get here soon as we get farther into the end of May here and into June. They need that moisture to actually get that grass growing."

Seeding across the province is pegged at 68 per cent complete, which is behind the five-year average of 76 per cent for this time of year. Many producers in the western half of the province have wrapped up seeding.