Rainy spring forces farmers from greenhouses and fields
Flooded farmers deal with ruined crops while others have been kept from planting
Flooded or not, many farmers say the rainy spring is delaying and disrupting the spring growing season in the Ottawa-Gatineau area.
According to Environment Canada, the Ottawa International Airport has measured more than 260 millimetres of rain since April 1, which has mixed with melting snow to cause severe flooding along many of the area's waterways.
On May 6, some 30 to 45 centimetres of water got into Les Serres Gatineau's greenhouse complex near the Gatineau airport, flooding around 80 per cent of the five-building, 10,000-square-foot property.
Patrick Guay, who's in the process of taking over the business, said they had to harvest as many of their vegetable crops as they could and now have to sell them off all at once, as they wait to see the extent of the damage.
"I don't know yet how many plants will die. I know there will be some," he said.
"I don't know if it will be 20 per cent or 80 per cent right now."
Guay said they've been able to get space at a few markets in the area to sell their mass-harvested crops. Sales are normally staggered throughout the summer.
They may not have another round of crops ready until September, he added.
"Right now it's not that bad. We've got a good response. It's pretty positive, people are happy to come give us a hand," Guay said. "But a couple of days ago, I felt like crying a lot."
Too wet to work the soil
South of Ottawa, farmers said they haven't been able to get out onto their fields and get planting yet because the ground is too wet.
"You can't get on them with equipment to work the soil … we just haven't had the time for the water to drain out of the soil and some warmth and heat to come dry out the top part of it," said Steven Byvelds, who runs a corn and soybean farm near Williamsburg, Ont.
"We haven't got much accomplished on the field. We had all these great plans to get started in [early] May but those plans have come to a screaming halt."
Our top potential is gone, but that doesn't mean we won't get good yields.- Finch, Ont., farmer Arnie Harkvoort
Arnie Harkvoort, who farms in nearby Finch, Ont., said they're looking at starting the growing season two to three weeks later than normal.
"It's kept us out of the field. We're changing [crop] varieties," he said. "Our top potential is gone, but that doesn't mean we won't get good yields."
Both Harkvoort and Byvelds said they like the way the forecast is looking later in the week, with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 20s.
"There's no doubt about it, a great summer can make up for a lot of issues in the spring," said Byvelds.
"I don't think any farmer in [the area] has written off the year yet. There's lots of year left, but we'd certainly be more comfortable if we could get some stuff in the ground and start to see it grow in the next two to three weeks."
