Crops in our region look fairly healthy when you're driving along the highway, but looks can be deceiving.

Altona area farmer Wes Martens says the dry conditions this year have had an impact and a lot of those crops are lacking adequate moisture.

Wes Martens

"They are extremely variable ... changes from one producer to the next. Some areas have received a good amount of rain, other have received very little and everything in between. It's going to vary a lot this year even from fields that are a mile apart."

Crops like corn are well ahead of schedule in their development this year, having fully tasselled by mid July when normally they'd hit that stage by the end of July or early August, according to Martens.

He said we can expect to see harvest activity begin on crops like barley, winter wheat and some spring wheat in about 10 days and possibly as early a 7 days.