Manitoba's flax harvest is expected to begin in the coming days.

Dane Froese with Manitoba Agriculture says canola will likely come in first, due to flax's lower shatter tolerance risk. He notes as a result, flax can be pushed back a bit.

"So far flax has been one of the shining stars for the crops in 2019. We might not see record yields or phenomenal yields but mostly the flax crops have handled the drier weather. We came through in spring a little bit better than some crops, so we are seeing a more uniform stand and we are seeing fairly good development there despite the lack of moisture in June and July."

Froese notes cases of pasmo disease have been minimal, adding weeds were a bigger concern, due to the fact that flax is not a great competitor with weeds.

There were about 47,000 insured acres of flax seeded in Manitoba in 2019, a jump of about 10,000 from last year.