(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Dawson Thompson

Crop Set-back

Local farmers talk about heat wave after effect

Jul 6, 2021 | 1:00 PM

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Crops did not take kindly to last weeks heat wave, local farmers say.

There were some setbacks, and farmers are now hoping for rain sooner rather than later.

“At this point we’re doing alright,” Mike Grassick told paNOW. Grassick farms 40 kilometres east of Prince Albert. They have about 160 head of cattle and grow canola, wheat, barley, and oats.

“It won’t last very long without significant rain. We’re going to run out of grass for our cows, that’s going to have a definite impact on our operations….The crops are definitely suffering from a lack of moisture and the heat. There is a lot of stress on the crops and the cattles’ day to day life.”

The hay crops at Grassick’s farm are at about half of what they had last year which will impact the feed this winter.

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“It’s going to affect our income for this year, definitely,” Grassick said. “The bushels are not going to be there. It’s not only affecting just now, but it’ll also affect the whole year.”

Grassick added if they see rain this week there will be some improvement on the crops, but they will not return to their previous state.

“It’s probably been our worst year in almost 20 years,” Grassick said.

Richard Wilson has a mixed grain and cattle operation near Red Deer Hill. Luckily for them they never experienced or heard of any fires near them due to the provinces fire ban but the heat has had an impact on their crops.

“The hay land has gone backwards. A lot of the leaves on the alfalfa plants are dying off before you can get them cut,” Wilson said. “The crops are burning off. Especially canola crops, they have really taken a hit. They were trying to blossom in the hot weather and the blossoms were burning so bad, they had to be thrown out.

“If we don’t get some moisture soon, it’s really going to affect us. We were doing pretty good until the heat hit. Then everything changed. I know a lot of my grain farmer friends are pretty worried.”

Wilson added they have experienced heat waves in the past but not to the magnitude, or to the longevity of it.

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Dawson.thompson@pattisonmedia.com

On twitter: @dawsonthompson8