Starting this month, Alberta’s agriculture industry will have bi-weekly access to information related to the crop year, including soil moisture and crop conditions.
This year’s first report was released on May 11.
The Alberta 2010 crop report schedule includes 12 bi-weekly reports to be released between May and October, as well as the Crop Season in Review report in March 2011.
Chuanliang Su, a researcher with Alberta Agriculture, testified to the usefulness of the reports to the industry.
“Comments from industry, such as grain companies and insurance companies, are positive. The information covered in crop reports this year will be much similar to previous years.”
Reports are scheduled to be released on May 26, June 8 and 22, July 6 and 20, Aug. 4, 17 and 31, Sept. 14 and 28, and Oct. 14.
The reports capture valuable information related to crop production in Alberta during the current crop season. The information is collected primarily through surveys and focuses on soil moisture, crop conditions, seeding and harvesting progress, pasture conditions, and insect and disease situations.
In addition to a provincial overview, the crop reports will provide summaries  for five regions, the southern, central, northeast, northwest and Peace River regions.
Alberta Crop Reports have been delivered to producers since 1940.
The 2010 Alberta crop reporting series is available at www.agriculture.alberta.ca, by clicking on the information tab, statistics, and crops. Scroll down to the link entitled Alberta Crop reports.