Farmers continuing to battle grasshoppers, hopeful for good harvest season

If you’ve walked near a field across Saskatchewan lately, chances are you’ve heard the sound of grasshoppers emanating from somewhere inside of them.

The little critters have taken over farmers’ fields this year.

Josef Buttigieg, the owner of Fenek Farms just outside of Regina, says the grasshoppers are impacting the quality of the crop.

“There’s obviously going to be a decrease in crop quality, so quite a bit of our harvest is hay and the grasshoppers want to get parts of them inside your hay in the first place and then they’re eating the grasses and such,” he said.

“The benefit of this year is that, yes, we have the grasshoppers, but we’ve had quite a bit of moisture in this area. So any losses that we’re encountering have kind of been offset by the improvement in moisture and crop quality.”

Buttigieg says the grasshopper population on his farm seems to have decreased.

While the population has decreased on his farm, he noted that dry places like southwestern Saskatchewan have been hit hard and are still facing challenges when it comes to dealing with grasshoppers.

“Harvest in this area hasn’t really started yet in terms of grain,” he explained. “There are some people at least in this area heading out and the grasshopper quantity has dropped significantly.

“I know of some other places in southwestern Saskatchewan where it’s pretty nasty. You’re doing a 50/50 mix — 50 per cent of wheat is going inside your (machine) and the other 50 per cent is grasshopper.”

Buttigieg thinks the reason why there has been such a high number of grasshoppers in the fields this year is because of dry summers over the past couple of years, especially down in the southwestern part of the province where there has been little moisture over the last several years.

While the grasshoppers have been wreaking havoc on some farms, Buttigieg is hopeful for a strong harvest season as his operation gets ready to go full steam ahead trying to collect its crop.

“Last year our problem out here was actually having grass. It was like a drought year and then this year all of a sudden we’ve got a bumper crop,” he said.

“Last year we harvested about 250,000 pounds of grass and this year we’re getting about 500,000 pounds of grass. I’m not complaining so far.

“So far the yields look pretty good. Hopefully we have some good weather that will work with us and other farmers in the area.”

The next 10 days throughout most of Saskatchewan are expected to be very hot and very dry. According to Buttigieg, that is welcome news.

“We don’t want moisture at this point of the year. I want it nice and dry,” he noted. “I still have to do some more haying as well. If I could get another two or three weeks of dry weather, then I can be confident about getting my crops off the field.”

He says harvest for most farmers is delayed this year, but that’s because the seeding was delayed due to of a lot of moisture accumulated in the early months of summer.