Heavy rainfall Monday and Tuesday across central and southern Saskatchewan will be a blessing and a curse for farmers, depending on crop maturity, according to an agricultural consultant.
“[It’s] a little bit of cruel irony this year in a year that’s been so dry that when you finally get close to harvest on some of these susceptible crops that you have such a heavy rainfall event,” said Kevin Hursh, who runs an agriculture consulting and communications company.
More rain fell throughout the two days in the Saskatoon area than in the past five months, according to weather models. Hursh said farmers who have ripe pulse crops, like lentils or beans, could be negatively impacted by the storm.
“This could easily be tens of thousands of dollars loss for some producers that had pulse crops that were ready to harvest,” said Hursh.
However other farmers, like cattle producers or those with later maturing crops, could benefit from the influx of moisture, according to Hursh.
“If the rain had been earlier, it would have been welcomed universally.”
Craig Sparrow is one producer who is welcoming the rain. He runs an organic farm near Vanscoy, Sask. and said his crops were seeded later. He said he expects them to benefit from the precipitation.
“This morning we had almost two inches in the gauge and it’s been raining since,” said Sparrow, while standing among his field of wheat and flax.
“We’ll be good for awhile.”
While there may be mixed emotions towards the rain storm’s affect on this year’s crop, there may be consensus that the influx of moisture will be positive for producers moving forward.
“The big gain is next year, when you get a couple, three inches of moisture in the soil for next year’s production,” said Hursh.
“We had carry over moisture from last year that helped us through the spring when it was so dry and this will definitely help for next year,” added Sparrow.
Source - http://globalnews.ca/
