Lack of rain could threaten crops in Eastern Ontario

Jun 06, 2016

Weather forecast shows chances of rain

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Producers around Ottawa are stressing the fact they need rain soon, or they could lose nearly 40 per cent of their crops.

“We’re hoping and praying we do get some rain,” Mel Foster, a co-owner of Foster Family Farm in North Gower, Ontario, told CBC.

Some producers in the area have started to use irrigation to ensure their crops are receiving enough water – something they haven’t had to do since about 2012.

Rain

According to the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, farmers are battling a “moderately severe” drought.

Doug McKay, a cattle producer, also from North Gower, told CBC he could lose up to 40 per cent of his hay crop if the rains don’t come.

He said he’s fertilized his crop nearly a month ago but no rainfall means the fertilizer hasn’t penetrated the ground.

According to The Weather Network, there may be some rain coming.

The current 14-day forecast shows a 40 per cent chance of rain on June 9, 11, 12, 15, 18 and 20.

The highest chances of rain are June 7 and 8; both days have a 60 per cent chance of precipitation.

McKay said a heavy downpour won’t help because the ground is too hard and the rain will just run off.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.