This week's wintry blast is just the latest obstacle that has been thrown in the way of Grey-Bruce farmers this growing season.

An estimated 75% of the grain corn crop and as much as 40% of the soybean crop remains in the fields in Grey-Bruce and the harvest has been halted by the heavy snow that has blanketed the region in recent days. According to Environment Canada, almost 70 centimetres of snow had fallen at Wiarton so far in November, almost all of it in the past week.

"It is another cruel trick by Mother Nature in 2014," said Peter Johnson, a crops specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. "We have had lots of challenges — late spring, too wet, extremely cool and corn is not very mature.

"There are a whole bunch of things that are already bad, and this is just making harvest that much more challenging."

Bruce County Federation of Agriculture President Pat Jilesen, who farms between Paisley and Chesley, said there was at least 60% of the corn to be harvested in his area, as snow continued to fall on Friday.

He said that snow had settled onto the leaves and cobs of the plant, which makes it almost impossible to harvest.

"It gets into the combine and plugs up the combine, melts a wee bit and turns to ice," said Jilesen. "Then you better hope you have a heated shed to get at it the next day."

Jilesen said he had little hope for the soybeans that have not yet been harvested.

"(Soybeans) is an oil crop, so it does repel a bit of moisture," said Jilesen, who grew only hay this year, and also raises lambs on his farm. "They eventually do get moisture and then they will expand and they will split and the crop is pretty much ruined once you put a bean crop through the winter."

Grey County Federation of Agriculture Past-President and Egremont-Proton Federation of Agriculture President Wayne Caughill said there are "piles" of crops in the fields where he farms veal in the Conn area of Southern Grey County.

"There is a lot of canola here that has been swathed for two months and is not going to come off," said Caughill. "There is a lot of flax and beans that have not been touched yet. They are all iffy crops with all this snow."

Caughill said there is probably 10 to 15 centimetres of snow on the ground where he lives and farmers are concerned.

"Nobody has any concern about the corn because it can stay there until next spring," said Caughill. "As far these other ones, they are saying it is not good."

Johnson said it is soybeans that are of the most concern when it comes to the blanket of snow over top of them, particularly if lodging has taken place, where the stems have broken because of the deterioration of the plant.

Provincially, about 90% of the soybean crop has been harvested, but Grey-Bruce is one of those pockets where there is still a significant acreage of beans in the field.

"They don't take the snow very well," Johnson said of soybeans. "If the snow stays and we don't get a chance to finish harvest by spring, the quality is generally much reduced. It is quite impacted."

Through the winter, the soybean pod will get wet and mould will develop, reducing the quality of the beans.

Johnson said as long as the crop is still standing and has not yet lodged to the ground, it may still be harvestable if the snow melts, but that melting snow presents its own problems as it can weigh heavily on the bean plants. It can also turn the fields into a mess.

"Assuming it is going to melt this weekend, in that process for some reason it is worse than rain," said Johnson. "It just leaves the surface of the soil with absolutely no structure. It is just muddy and ugly and you can't go anywhere near it because it is so gummy."

Corn, on the other hand, can survive the winter much better and can be harvested in spring, as long as it is still standing.

"With corn it all comes down to two things — how good is it standing . . . and then how deep does the snow get," said Johnson.

If the stalk loses its integrity and the cob touches the ground its quality will drop, much like the soybeans.

If the snow gets so deep that it is well above the cob, once that snow starts to melt it causes the stalks to collapse down, which makes it almost impossible to harvest.

"It just looks like the stalk gives up and goes straight down, and then there is no stalk to get the nose under with the (combine's) corn header," said Johnson. "In that situation yield losses are extremely high."

Johnson said there will be some yield loss caused by deer and turkeys eating the seed throughout the winter, but that loss is minimal in most fields.

"If we get another chance to go at the corn, then yeah, we have a shot. We can combine corn with snow if the snow is not too deep and it is cold enough," said. Johnson. "But, if the snow gets too deep or if it is lodging badly and we don't get another shot at it, it is going to have a pretty significant impact."

Source - http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/