Farmers may have difficulty seeing the opportunity lurking in the fertilizer prices skyrocketing alongside those military drones soaring over the Middle East.

After all, these are times that test the fortitude of any optimist.

Farmers can’t do anything about the sticker price on crop nutrients, but the latest annual Fertilizer Canada survey tracking their use suggests they have more latitude to adjust their purchases.

The current economics around crop fertility may accomplish what environmental and climate change lobbyists have been advocating for years. Farmers may be driven to accept the science and adopt different technologies — both new and old — that improve how efficiently they feed their crops.

Farmers took full advantage of the windy, hot weather this week to chip away at harvest. They had about three-quarters of the province’s crop in their bins just as October arrived with a cooler, wetter forecast.

But it hasn’t been easy, as evidenced by the deeply rutted fields in areas that received heavy rains two weeks ago. There has been no shortage of anecdotal reports of “rescue” operations, where an individual operation’s harvest was waylaid by the need to extract equipment mired in the mud.

Wet soils beneath a thick canopy of ripe crops also add up to quality losses. While much of the early cereals harvested this fall have ranked in the top grades, some fields where harvest was delayed by rain resulted in grain that was downgraded to livestock feed, which is a major hit on pricing.

The unusually warm day and night-time temperatures have also created headaches harvesting potatoes. The optimum temperature range for putting potatoes into storage is between 7 C and 15 C. Harvest when spuds are too cold and they bruise; storing them when they are too warm increases the risk of diseases that cause rot. At this time of year, the shift from one extreme to the other can happen overnight, so the window of opportunity is narrow.

VIRDEN — A pair of Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. offices — closed in 2021 under the Progressive Conservative government — have been reopened in Westman.

Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn visited Virden on Friday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at one site, with the other opening in Shoal Lake.

“It’s definitely an opportunity to celebrate,” Kostyshyn said.

The two new MASC office locations will provide in-person services for clients in the agriculture industry.