By Richard Blyleven
Spring seeding is just around the corner… or is it? In 2014 we had a late start to the planting season, with cool, wet weather well into the end of May. The weather pattern was blamed on the cold winter that we had and the fact that the percentage of ice on the great lakes had not been that high since 1978. We were introduced to a whole new phrase as well, “Polar Vortex”.
Winter can have a profound effect on the weather that is to ensue it. At the March 19, 2012 Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic Meeting held at the London Convention Centre, Cal Whewell, a Risk Management Consultant with commodities trading FC Stone, started his presentation with a talk about the winter we had just had. The winter of 2011-2012 was basically nonexistent, with the jet stream never dipping down from the north and very little snow or frost in the ground. It had been one of the warmest winters in some 30 years.
Whewell then went on to show us there had been four warm winters like that over the last century. He then showed us the corn yields after those four winters; they were all low yields because of draught. He went on to say, “I’m not telling you there is going to be a draught this year, but history is telling you there is going to be a severe draught.” The spring and summer of 2012 were some of the driest seasons in 50 years. Cal Whewell was right on the mark.
Coming back to the spring of 2015 and the planting season, what do we have? We have the Great Lakes that have a higher percentage of ice coverage than they had a year ago. The shipping season is starting later this year because there is more ice than last year. It looks like we will be in the same type of weather we were in a year ago, which gave us ample rain and a cool summer and of course “rain makes grain”.
I’ve often heard from non farmers that we farmers sure talk about the weather a lot. For good reason; the weather has a profound impact on our crop production and farm management practices. When it comes to weather, we as farmers are working on the front line. We don’t know what the planting, growing and harvest seasons will be like, but it is something to think about and prepare for as best we can. As the busy season is just around the corner, we here at the CFFO pray for safety on your farms and businesses.
Source: CFFO