Correction
This story incorrectly identified the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation as the "Alberta" Financial Services Corporation, and has been corrected to show the right name. The Gazette apologizes to the AFSC for the mistake.
Sturgeon County farmers are revving up their combines this week as the 2020 harvest season begins – not that there’s much to harvest.
A handful of farmers in Sturgeon hauled their combine harvesters out of the shed this week to start bringing in this year’s harvest.
Farmer André Montpetit said he started spraying his barley and peas with glyphosate (which kills and dries the crop so it can be harvested when it’s ripe and also controls weeds for next year) this week, and has seen a few farmers swathing canola. Most wheat in the county would need another two weeks before it is ready for collection.
Just 1.8 per cent of all crops in the Edmonton region had been combined as of Aug. 25, according to the latest Alberta Crop Report – a bit more than the 1.4 per cent usually collected at this time. Those crops were in pretty poor condition, with just 36 per cent rated as good or excellent – way below the 53 per cent this region typically sees at this time of year, and the worst in the province.
Walter Tappauf, who runs a large farm west of St. Albert, said this year’s wet weather drowned many fields and stunted plant growth. Some of his pea fields had yielded just four bushels per acre as a result – way below the 70 he usually gets. His canola had also sputtered out, with some of the worst fields producing just five bushels an acre – a tenth of what they typically produce.
“This is the worst crop we’ve grown as long as I can remember,” said Tappauf, who has farmed for close to 50 years.
“A lot of farmers are pretty disappointed.”
Rotten year
Crops in the North West region (which includes Sturgeon County) have so far come in at about 15 per cent below the five-year average in terms of yield, said Ken Handford, an analyst with the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation (which runs Alberta’s crop insurance program). That’s in sharp contrast to the Southern region around Medicine Hat, which saw yields 43 per cent over average this year.
This year’s poor harvest is all down to the weather, Montpetit said. A slow thaw combined with torrential May and June rains drowned out many fields, killing crops and making fields too muddy for farmers to spray weed and fungal controls.
“Our fate was sealed in May, really,” he said.
Handford encouraged Sturgeon County farmers to call their local AFSC office to talk about their options this harvest season. In most cases, farmers would have to turn to crop insurance.
Morinville-area farmer Ron Krywko said some of his fields weren’t worth harvesting this year, and he regrets not plowing them under. Still, this year’s canola harvest should be quicker than most, as there isn’t much to collect, and could contribute to a better crop next year, as this year’s scraggly plants didn’t suck as many nutrients out of the soil.
Sturgeon County could also head into next year with ample soil moisture, given that 34 per cent of the region had excessive amounts of it, Handford said. Still, that could all change in the next few months, depending on the weather.
Montpetit said county farmers would need about three weeks to collect this year’s harvest, with many working into the wee hours of the morning. He asked drivers to have patience with farmers driving large equipment on the road at this time.
Visit www.alberta.ca/alberta-crop-reports.aspx for the latest harvest updates.
