Manitoba's sunflower crop is progressing very quickly.

That from Ben Friesen of Scoular Canada, who says the recent heat wave has really helped to speed things along.

"There's some areas that are getting into the flowering stage, definitely a lot of them are in the bud stage right now...we'll see most of the fields in the next couple of weeks will be turning very yellow."

Friesen says some rain will be needed in the next few weeks to help with seed development.

He says there has been signs of rust on some plants but nothing that would require spraying in most cases. Friesen adds producers will need to starting keeping an eye out for lygus bugs and banded moth as the crop starts to flower.

Field near Altona, MB