WELLINGTON COUNTY – Last week's unexpected wet weather has left some local farmers scrambling to counteract the negative impacts on crops like hay before the next rainfall.
A small-scale winter wheat, corn and soybean farmer who also offers field tillage and round bailing, Peter Wright, the owner and operator of Livings Springs Farms in Fergus said while his corn and wheat have continued to thrive in the moisture left by last week's storm, his hay crop might not recover.
"I got a couple of fields off and dry enough to store in the barn but I have well over 100 bales just sitting outside that...I never got quite dry enough before the next rainfall," said Wright. "So they're just sitting outside and I'm not even sure if they're going to be any good."
Wright isn't alone in his experience. Wellington Federation of Agriculture President Barclay Napp said his neighbour cut some hay before the rain but believes it's going to be "too rotten" "too wet" and "too moist" to use by the time he gets to it.
"Unfortunately even when (the hay) dries off, the leaves can fall off when you're baling, or mould or fungus can start developing naturally and that can be toxic to livestock because it reduces the quality," said Napp."You really want to, when you're using that bale, open it up to check on the dustiness, the mould contents inside."
As hay is a "very timely" crop, co-owner of Fergus-based dairy farm Harrcroft Acres Ltd. Janet Harrop said when farmers experience a processing delay post-cut and harvest, the hay's protein decreases which negatively impacts the quality.
"You'll see right now, there's actually quite a bit of hay that's been cut down because to make dry hay you need about a four to five-day window of dry weather to cut it, dry it, bale it and get it inside and we've not seen that," said Harrop. "So hay crops have been really delayed in people that probably would have preferred to have cut their hay three, four weeks ago, are finally doing it now."
While crops like corn and winter wheat are "growing like crazy" and have benefited from the recent warm wet weather, Harrop said hay and low-lying crops like soybeans are at risk of developing fungus from the moisture.
Experiencing some poor emergence, thinner stands in some fields and soil crusting, which can lead to a more difficult harvest, Wright said he didn't have to replant any of his soybean crop but knows lots of people on farms further south that did as a result of last week's weather.
"I think overall, if it's flooding for less than two days and the soil gets dried out or the roots aren't in waterlogged soil, the plant should survive...But if it's longer than two days, the plant will be seriously affected," said Napp. "If it's longer than four days, the plant probably will not make it."
Although farmers can supplement with purchased products, Harrop said products like soy meal and protein-rich hay are expensive and can have negative financial impacts on a farming operation.
"Farmers have to be optimists. There's so many things that could go wrong...you have to adapt and roll with the punches, and then you have to spend a lot of time, whether it's a late night or early morning dealing with these unexpected tackles in life," said Napp.
At Harrcroft, Harrop said they've started anticipating only having a day and a half to process a crop and recently invested in a larger harvester to chop their haylage in a single day versus the normal two or three.
As unpredictable, extreme weather is becoming the new normal, Harrop said they're fortunate to have such "healthy resilient soil" in Wellington County that can absorb additional moisture and protect most crops not planted in low-lying areas.
"Mother Nature is a big part obviously of what we do and she's becoming less predictable so that is really difficult because...you're hurrying up and want to do certain work and then the weather changes and you have to wait," said Harrop. "We don't want to complain about getting rain but the issue is that if we had a few days break, we could get some cropping done but when we get rain every other or every third day, it makes it really hard to do any harvesting."
Farmers in Wellington County currently produce seven per cent of the province's winter wheat, 10 per cent of corn for silage, five per cent of hay and four per cent of soybean crops.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
