Some areas could get up to 40 mm of rain by Thursday morning
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Mother Nature is planning to cover several Ontario counties with a significant amount of rain over the next few days.
Environment Canada issued special weather statements for nearly 20 regions warning of between 20 and 40 mm (0.7 and 1.6 inches) of rain between Tuesday evening and Thursday morning.
“The ground has limited ability to absorb further rainfall,” the warnings say for many areas.
Melting snow and ice pellets could also be part of the equation in some communities.
For farmers, these weather statements mean further delays.
Doug Virtue, a cash crop producer from Bruce County, isn’t behind yet. But he thinks he might be once the rain event passes through.
“There’s not much happening around here because the fields are already too wet to think about going near and there’s no heat to warm anything up,” he told Farms.com. “We usually plant our corn in the first week of May. We’re not behind yet but it might be at least a week before we can touch anything around here.”
Ron Peare, a cash cropper from Hamilton-Wentworth, echoed Virtue’s thoughts.
“We’re not behind now but I think we will be once we try to get started,” he told Farms.com. “Everything is too wet, and we can’t get into the fields. All we can do is wait.”
Other growers, like Erica Murray, a cash crop grower from Huron County, have been able to do some spring field work despite the wet conditions.
But after the rain falls, farmers will be challenged to finish planting within a shorter window.
“When the weather clears we still have to get the crop in the ground,” she told Farms.com. “That could mean we put in longer hours to catch up for lost time.”
Weather challenges have been the topic of conversation in her circle of grower colleagues, she said.
Wiyada Arunwaikit/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo