Many farmers facing a slow, 'catastrophic' start to the growing season

Some Canadian farmers — including in Ontario — are grappling with a slow start to this year's growing season as cooler and dryer weather has delayed some crops, including strawberries. 

"What we are harvesting right now is maybe one per cent of what we were harvesting last year," said Tristan Pfenning, a strawberry grower with Pfenning Organic Vegetables in New Hamburg. 

Pfenning said that initially, this year's growing season looked promising until unseasonably cold weather and a few frosty nights hit Waterloo region in May. 

"That led to a catastrophic start to the season and we're just starting to harvest now with very low numbers for the season," he said. "Those first two weeks of harvest are lost, not to be replaced."

Brantwood farms in Brantford, Ont., is facing a similar slowdown.

"It's definitely different than some other years we've had. It just seems like everything's moving a little bit slower than normal," said Andrew Pate, a farmer with Brantwood Farms. 

The farm grows a variety of strawberries that are ready to pick at certain times. 

"We really only try and pick about one variety per week. Each variety of strawberry is only in its prime for about a week," said Pate. 

Typically, the first round of strawberries are picked starting on June 1, with the expectation the next variety will be ready to pick the following week. But this year, every variety following the first week has been delayed. 

"There's tons of strawberries out there — it's been a good year. It's just that they're moving slow and they're not returning as fast as we would like them to," said Pate.

The slowdown delayed the opening of Brantwood Farms by five days, but Pate believes the farm will be able to make up for lost time. 

"We're almost going to hit our prime when we have the most strawberries for Canada Day which is ideal actually," he said.   

Leafy greens have also been impacted by the cold weather. 

"Our greens are on the whole smaller than usual for this time of year," said Angie Koch, lead farmer at Fertile Ground Farm in St. Agatha.

"We started our harvest about a week later than we normally would and some crops are delayed as much as two weeks." 

However, not all of Fertile Ground Farm's leafy greens have been delayed. Cabbage family crops, like bok choy, broccoli and Napa cabbage, have been harvested early.

"We've had a lot of sunshine and they will grow great, even in cooler temperatures, as long as they get lots of sun to take advantage of," said Koch. 

Koch added that the mixed results can make for a more difficult growing season. 

"We've ended up with a funny split season. It makes it hard to figure out what to do with everything when it's not quite ready at the same time."

Koch noted that since some crops are behind and some are ahead, customers will be left with fewer options when it comes to what they can buy from the farm. 

"It all works itself out later in the season, but at the beginning, it poses some challenges because you just don't have enough to really attract people for the sales," she said. 

Irrigation systems not ideal, farmer says

While drier conditions in Ontario have not had any impact on the crops at Fertile Ground Farm, Koch is concerned about dry weather this summer and what possible droughts could mean for crops over the long term. She worries abrupt switches between periods of drought and rain will be damaging to crops. 

"That's the type of extreme climate changes that we've been experiencing over the past number of years. It's not like it just averages out for a plant," she said. "They have all the stress of too much water and then all of the stress of not enough water." 

Koch said most vegetable growers use irrigation systems during periods of drought. But she warns this is not an ideal solution. 

"That's taking ground water out of the ground where it belongs and turning it into surface water. That's just contributing to further problems down the road for all of us." 

Drought and dry conditions have been an issue for much of Canada this year. According to the Canadian Drought Monitor, more than half of the country was classified as abnormally dry in May.

Anabela Bonada, managing director of Climate Science at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, said she's concerned by the long-term, ongoing drought conditions like the ones seen in Saskatchewan.

"Ongoing drought causes poor soil moisture which means stressing of crops," she said.

Bonada said the stressing of crops will lead to a delay in their growth and farmers will suffer financially.

"They're not able to deliver the amount that they had to agree to with the people they provide to. It could really make them have to tap into their own insurance."

Bonada also highlighted that the issue is larger than the crops themselves. 

"In the prairie provinces, we're seeing that the pasture and hay as well is being affected. That can really affect the livestock feed availability."

Looking ahead, Environment Canada predicts a warmer-than-usual summer with uncertain precipitation in most provinces.

Bonada said there may be shortages of certain crops throughout the summer due to heat.  

"Prepare for higher prices or just not even seeing the availability of what you're used to."