It was a tough year for many winter wheat growers in Manitoba.

Jake Davidson, executive director of Winter Cereals Manitoba, says much of the crop died as a result of warmer weather in January and March.

The worse hit region was in eastern Manitoba.

"This was not a year of winter kill," said Davidson. "This was a year of warm weather in January and March when large areas of Manitoba actually warmed up enough and got rain. The rain sat on the fields, froze solid, turned them into skating rinks. That basically froze out the winter wheat, it choked the oxygen off of the plants."

He notes for the crop that did make it, harvest is right around the corner.

"Depending on where you are...it can be anytime after August 1," he said. "The areas that get the early harvest, were the areas that were hit the hardest by this winter. I'm going to think most areas we're talking 10 days to 2 weeks before anybody gets started."

Davidson says he hasn't heard of many issues with fusarium head blight, adding the disease seems to do better in wetter years.