A couple of recent downpours are but a drop in the bucket for local farmers.
Heat waves and scarce rain have been hitting growers of all sorts of crops hard.
“Our hay crop, and not just ours, is down 30 to 40 per cent (over last year),” said John Healy, who has 400 acres, and 150 head of cattle, at his Ramara Township farm. “The last time we can remember it being so dry at this time of year was 2012, but it wasn’t this bad.”
Last year, he said, it was “so wet, you couldn’t get out on the field.”
This year’s conditions have left Healy having to buy more hay than usual and sell some of his cattle.
“You have to sell some of your herd if you don’t have enough hay,” he said, adding he has sold a few cows he likely would have kept for another year.
The downpours aren’t much help, as the rainwater doesn’t adequately permeate the ground. The longer, more sustained rainfall last weekend “might be a saving grace,” Healy said.
“Mother Nature held off as long as she could, but she really came through for us,” he said. “We’re very optimistic, even compared to a week ago.”
Mother Nature has thrown some curveballs at Hewitt’s Farms, too, in Severn Township.
In 2016, Hewitt’s lost 40 acres of sweet corn because of the heat. In 2017, a wet and cool season also made it difficult.
“This season started off well,” said Trevor Hewitt. “Everything germinated well.”
The warm temperatures this season allowed Hewitt’s to get a jump on its production, as corn likes heat, “but then the heat becomes a negative thing,” he said.
The brief, torrential rainfalls of the past couple of weeks haven’t helped Hewitt’s, either.
“A lot of people think you get one big storm and your problem is solved.”
Not so. Hewitt, too, is hoping for more sustained precipitation.
There is no ‘normal’ anymore when it comes to the weather, but he is optimistic.
“You have to be confident to do this business,” Hewitt said, but he acknowledged he is “skeptical” about how the corn he planted later in the season will turn out.
For the next week, Environment Canada is forecasting temperatures in the mid-20s, with a 30 per cent chance of rain Saturday and Sunday and a 60 per cent chance Wednesday.
