2 days ago
Dry conditions challenging some N.B. farmers
Wildfires and tinderbox conditions are a challenge for farmers in New Brunswick this summer.
"Right now a lot of cranberry farmers are losing a lot of their water," said Arick Streatch, a farmer with Sunberry Cranberry Producers in Maugerville, just outside Fredericton.
"Cranberry farmers rely on water not only for harvest time when we flood, but for sizing our berries up and for keeping the moisture content at a reasonable level."
New Brunswick and other regions in Canada have endured hot and dry conditions over the last several days. A multi-day Environment Canada heat warning is expected to end after Wednesday.
Stretch said his farm is still able to draw water from a century-old canal at the back of the farm, so it's not the worst-case scenario just yet.
He said that these are the hottest conditions he's seen in the last six years of farming and that harvesting cranberries in the fall, which requires flooding the fields, would be "extremely hard" if water sources dry up.
Aside from needing water to harvest, having dryer cranberries also brings a financial impact.
"We need water to size our fruit up. And if you've got bigger berries, that will be a bigger crop, because we go by weight," Stretch said. "So we'll lose money if our berries are too small."
There's also what's called fruit rot, when cranberries completely shrivel up.
"Every farmer will have areas of their farm where they'll have some dry stuff, I think everyone is trying to be optimistic," Stretch said.
Across the province in Salisbury, near Moncton, John Bos of Bosenic Farms said he's been luckier than some neighbouring farms.
While his corn crop to use for feed was planted in time, some other farmers didn't plant early enough to avoid the drought.
"The yields will definitely be down, the cobs aren't filling out like they should and the plants are starting to shrink," Bos said.
He's trying to keep his cows as cool as possible by keeping lots of fans running in the barn.
"I'd rather stand in the barns than outside today," Bos said with a laugh.
Milking Holstein cows in the heat is challenging even with the fans running, Bos said. The heat has also caused some cows not to go into heat and breed, which won't have an effect until the fall, when the herd of calves might be slightly smaller.
"Things get out of sync," he said.
Milking cows also need large amounts of water, so he's worried, too, about water sources drying up in the heat.
"If a cow is putting out 40 litres of milk a day, she's probably got to drink almost 80 litres to digest it and make that milk," he said.
Bos said another farmer nearby stopped making hay out of concern his tractor would overheat or malfunction and set the field on fire.
"That's the first thing you worry about, what's the worst thing that can happen," Bos said. "And you try to mitigate that.
"But there's no certainties in life."
A provincial ban earlier this week on entering Crown lands because of extreme dryness was became a struggle for one farming sector in particular.
"It was a difficult decision," said Donald Arseneault, the executive director of New Brunswick Blueberries and a former natural resources minister. "I've been in government. I get it, they have to take into account ... the safety of everyone."
With many of the 175 blueberry farmers represented by his group using Crown land for blueberry fields, the ban means farms legally can't access their crops. And with the harvest season just beginning, that means widespread anxiety.
"If you miss that harvest season, then it's all for nothing," Arseneault said in an interview.
Arseneault said the New Brunswick industry usually produces about 60 to 80 million pounds a year and employs thousands.
The industry's problem appeared to have been remedied by late Wednesday afternoon.
Natural Resources Minister John Herron said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference that the department was "exploring options" to allow blueberry producers onto their land.
Later in the afternoon, a news release from the department announced new regulations.
Blueberries on Crown land can be harvested, but only under strict conditions, the release said. Harvesting can only happen at night and with firefighting equipment on site.
