Farmers struggling with waterlogged crops after rainy start to summer

Farmers in Nova Scotia are struggling to maintain and harvest their crops after a rainy start to the summer.

The Annapolis Valley, which is home to many farms and vineyards, has seen about 80 millimetres of rain in the last 10 days — waterlogging crops and washing away pesticides.

"I don't know of anybody that is liking the weather right now," William Spurr, president of Horticulture Nova Scotia, told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia.

"Everybody's pretty discouraged at this point."

Spurr, a fifth-generation farmer who operates the Spurr Brothers Farm, grows strawberries, apples, pears, onions and carrots.

He said this is the wettest start to the summer he's ever seen, which has stopped crews from getting into the fields to pick the produce. The rain is also washing away pesticides that protect tree crops.

"Every time we've gone into the orchards to mow or spray or do anything, it's rotted it up or just everything's gotten washed off, so it's definitely been challenging," he said.

Spurr said he expects that could create quality issues with their harvest this year.

Jordan Eyamie, the manager at Webster Farms, is facing the same problems. Her farm grows strawberries and raspberries.

She said her farm has been struggling to protect the strawberries — which are ready to harvest — from something called Botrytis rot brought on by cool and wet conditions.

"It's like a grey mould and that can be a season-ender if you can't get it under control," she said.

Eyamie said she has already lost some of her crops to the mould. During a quick sweep of one field, she said an employee picked an entire quart of strawberries that were starting to rot.

"We do pick them off the plant to try to kind of mitigate or at least prevent it from happening throughout the whole field," Eyamie said.

"But it is a bit of a battle and the rain definitely makes it worse to try and salvage."

She's worried the continued rain, and upcoming heat, could make for an early end to the season.

Difficult season for grape growers

Glenn Dodge, the owner of Bent Ridge Winery in Windsor, said the rain only adds to an already difficult grape-growing season.

He said temperatures fluctuated significantly in the winter, with an extreme cold snap in February, and then there was an unseasonably dry spring.

"That doesn't affect grapes very much, but all of this water does. It is hard on the root system," he said.

Dodge said pollination during the flowering process has also been difficult in the rain.

Work in the fields has been tough, he said, because in some spots there is 15 centimetres of standing water.

He's worried the rain — on top everything else — could cut his grape harvest in half this season.

But, he said, there's not much a farmer can do about the weather.

"You are a victim of the weather and that's really all there is to it. There's nothing you can do to change how much rain you have," he said.

Spurr said farmers across the province are now hoping for sunshine, which is forecasted to come out Thursday.

"It would be nice if the sun came out and this just got dried up, so we can get back on the field," he said.

"But I can't say that I want the rain to completely stop because we're going to definitely need some more in a few weeks."