Harvest behind in many regions of the province

The stormy and wet summer has put harvest behind for many producers in the province.

For some, it was already a late growing season because of the drought conditions early on.

“In the middle of June, when it hadn’t rained in a long time, I thought the crops had gone backwards so far that we were past the point of no return,” said Kevin Hursh, a farmer and agriculture consultant.

He said because of the conditions, there is a lot of variability from one area to another, even on individual farms. It depends on when the crop was seeded and when the moisture arrived. There is a lot of variability from one crop type to another as well.

He said many canola crops are in poor shape because of how dry it was early on. Canola is a small seed, so has to be seeded shallow. “When you weren’t able to get it into the moisture in the ground and rain didn’t fall for a long time after, it really made for different stages of the crop,” said Hursh.

Hay has also had its challenges this year. Hay yields are well below average, but Hursh said he’s actually surprised by how well it turned out with the rain coming so late.

“The second and third week of June, significant rains came and it sort of saved the year. Some producers still aren’t going to have a great crop, but many producers will have an average crop and some will have production that’s above average,” said Hursh.

Hursh adds, it is early into harvest, and there are still many variables.

“We still need to be concerned about an early frost because we’ve got some late crops – some late seeded crops or a crop that was late germinating that is still very vulnerable if we were to get an early frost,” Hursh said.