By Cheryl Jahn

Hay Season

Wet weather a challenge for hay season

Jul 15, 2020 | 5:23 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The wet, rainy weather has put many in these parts in a sour mood, but for others, it’s a bigger concern.

“In my area, the ground is totally saturated,” says Phil Myatovic, who grows hay for his 85 head of cattle. “We can’t do much for at least a week until it percolates through. And, the 20th of July and the protein in the grass starts going down so it’s going to be poor hay.”

He says the other option is to produce sillage.

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And the weather issues are not restricted to Prince George. It is wet all across BC. In the southern regions of the province, it is of lesser concern because farmers there can get more than one crop off. Not so in the northern regions of the province and the Peace Country.

“That poses a little dilemma in the fact that we have to capitalize on what we can get once,” says Kevin Boon, President of the BC Cattlemen’s Association. “And, if we can’t get out on that field, what is the deterioration? What is the loss? And are we actually able to get a quality of feed at the end of the day?

He says there is no need to push the panic button. Yet.

“We’re watching. We’re monitoring, says Boon. “And it’s one of the challenges in living in this province where we can go from drought one year to floods the next year. And it all has an impact on the feed we have available.”

He says flooding is much more manageable for the farming industry than a broader, province-wide drought.

That’s cold comfort to Myatovic, who says his options are running out.

“I’m going to try for sillage or else I have to sell my herd. And the price is low right now. It’s a Catch 22 situation.”