Manitoba farmers hoping for hot, dry weather to help with saturated fields

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This growing season has been a frustrating and difficult one so far for Manitoba farmers, and one producer says he and others are just hoping that there will be enough hot and dry weather in the coming weeks to turn their fortunes around.

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“It’s kind of crazy that we went from one extreme to the other in the course of a year,” Jake Eyre, a Minto-area farmer, and current vice president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) said on Friday.

“We saw two years of drought throughout the province, and now it’s safe to say everywhere in the province has received more precipitation this growing season than in the last two years combined.”

Eyre said he grows a wide variety of crops at his farm, but this spring and summer’s relatively wet weather combined with cool days has created some big issues for farmers across the province, including saturated fields that, in some cases, are so wet they can’t be seeded, as well as crops not growing as well as many had hoped so far.

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“It’s not just the precipitation, because we also haven’t really had many days that have been 30 degrees or higher. I think it’s pretty safe to say farmers want some hot and dry weather and any hot and dry weather in the forecast would be a very welcome thing,” Eyre said.

“We would all welcome that.”

He added moisture in the ground is also an issue for farmers, because it makes crops more susceptible to diseases.

“What you see with this kind of moisture is the increased disease pressure with the field crops, because things like disease, bacteria, fungus, they like these kinds of wet conditions.”

But if the province continues to see wet weather and consistent rainy days in the coming weeks, Eyre said the issues producers are dealing with now will likely persist.

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Eyre said KAP, an organization that advocates for agricultural producers in the province, is also asking farmers to be mindful of their own mental health and to reach out for support if they feel they need to, because he said the unpredictability of weather is one of the reasons farmers often deal with issues of stress, anxiety and depression.

“The thing we depend on the most is the one thing we can’t control, and I have had conversations recently and a lot of people are really feeling it, especially with going from one extreme to the other,” he said. “So we continue to raise awareness of how mental health has to be at the forefront.

“There has been a lot more acceptances in the industry in the last few years of mental health, and we are seeing more and more conversations around it and willingness for farmers and their families to share their stories and be open about it, because people are realizing maintaining your own mental health is part of your life as a farmer, and an important part of the viability of your operation.

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“We expect tractors and combines to run and they need maintenance and they need downtime, but a lot of the time we forget about ourselves, so we need to remember that we also need to replenish and make sure we are looking after ourselves.”

Any agricultural producer or family member that feels they need support or someone to talk to can access a variety of mental health services and resources though the not-for-profit Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program at manitobafarmerwellness.ca, or can contact the Manitoba Farm Rural and Support Services program by contacting 1-866-367-3276.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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