Saskatchewan farmers are hoping for a hot and dry September for this year's harvest. (CBC)

A recent spell of wet weather on the Prairies is slowing the progress of the season's harvest.

The situation is particularly bad in waterlogged Saskatchewan, where just eight per cent of the 2010 crop has been combined.

That is well below the average of 28 per cent, according to the most recent crop report released Thursday by Saskatchewan's Ministry of Agriculture.

Farmers in the province have already endured a growing year hampered by bad weather.

"There's already a pretty dire situation for a number of producers," John Lyons, a spokesman for the Canadian Wheat Board, said Thursday. "And now ... you do run into some increased risk [of frost] as we get into September."

Losses could reach $3B

The board estimates that 4.2 million hectares of land weren't planted and another one million hectares were ruined shortly after seeding because of widespread flooding across the Prairies.

Analysts from BMO Capital Markets said in early August that the flooding could end up costing the farming industry as much as $3 billion, putting it into the ballpark of the 2003 mad cow disease crisis that cost the beef industry over $5 billion.

Brian Andrew, who farms near Craven, Sask., west of Regina, said he was able to get most of his crop of peas, lentils, wheat, canola and barley in the ground.

But now, the harvest is behind schedule.

"Throughout the whole year, starting in the spring, we've had just so much rain it just delayed the crops' [development]," he said. "The last couple of weeks, instead of getting a lot of hot dry weather, we've had rain and showers and cloudy days."

'We'll combine when the weather allows us, and hopefully, we'll get it all in.'— Brian Andrew, Craven-area farmer

Andrew knows what he needs to get the crop in the bin.

"Hot, sunny, windy days. That's what we'll order for the next month," he said.

Environment Canada's senior climatologist David Phillips said it's been "a bummer of a summer," and Prairie farmers have not had a break from the cool, wet weather.

He noted there have already been some places that have come close to frost, seeing single-digit temperatures.

Andrew said he's not surprised that the forecast for September doesn't look promising, but he's taking it in stride.

"It's part of farming. We'll combine when the weather allows us, and hopefully, we'll get it all in."