A lack of rain in some regions and a surplus in others has impacted some crop yields
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Farmers across the province are struggling with inconsistent rainfall.
Kim Jo Bliss, a crop researcher and cattle farmer in Emo, can attest to this challenge. Facing high temperatures and low precipitation, local producers are dealing with resulting yield shortages.
"We… are still quite dry, although we've had a pretty decent amount of rain here in the last little while," Bliss said in a CBC
article yesterday, "but we are at one of our lowest years."
Bliss has monitored the rainfall in her area for 18 years. In contrast to previous years, Rainy River received little precipitation this summer, she said.
"We are running short of pasture and feed and second and third crops are either very little or none at all," said Bliss. "It has improved ... but it's still not a great situation here."
The dry conditions in Bliss’s area this summer is forcing farmers to break into winter feed supplies earlier than normal, she explained.
In Brant County, farmers are also struggling with their hay yields, but the cause of their problems are different than those in Rainy River.
Thunder Bay received a total of 60.7 ml of precipitation in August, according to the Government of Canada .
Brant County received 119.1mm of precipitation, according to the Weather Network.
Martin Eggenschwiler of Bellstead Farms in Brant County is having difficulty making hay due to the rainy weather.
“Most of our alfalfa goes for silage. Of course, we need hay, too, but every year is harder to make hay,” he told Farms.com today.
“We need four to five days of dry weather to have dry hay. This year, even if we had a lot of sunny days, the humidity was so high that it would not dry. Plus, we had rain often, so we only got two to three days and they were calling for rain again.”
The excessive rain and moisture created extra costs for his operation, he added.
“If we couldn't make hay, we had to wrap it for wet silage bales, which is lot more expensive. Plus, silage bales don't keep forever, but you can keep hay for a long time.”
The humidity has been one of the worst things to deal with this summer, he says.
“Don't get me wrong, rain is good and we need it, too, but I think the humidity was the worst thing.”