Farmers keen to finish harvest as days grow shorter

Imagine a job where success or failure can hinge on something you have no control over. In Saskatchewan, that job is farming: an enterprise that thrives or withers depending on the weather.

The 2014 crop year has been hit with a number of weather-related challenges, a late start to spring seeding followed by unexpected — and heavy — rains; moisture that came at the wrong time for many farmers.

The harvest has also been difficult.

• Wet weather stalls harvest for some

In 2013, in mid-September, about 55 per cent of the Saskatchewan crop had been combined. As of Sept. 15 this year, just 23 per cent has been combined.

"Right now, the chaff and straw is just too tough for us to go ahead and combine," Dale Cowan, who farms near Regina, told CBC News Tuesday.

Farmers also have to contend with soil saturated from recent rains. As the days grow shorter, it takes longer for the land to be firm enough for equipment. Farmers have a choice of waiting to get onto their fields, or spending their time getting machinery unstuck.

"Well, it's about three hours later than when we normally start," another Regina-area farmer, Elwood Pituley, told CBC News Tuesday morning. "And that's money out of our pocket. Every day we don't get this harvest off, we'll just have to work later."

Many farmers are also facing reduced prices for crops, because quality is down this year.

"A lot of the lentil grades will be down," Pituley noted. "Probably a lot of it at a feed quality."

Cowan figures if a recent spate of hot weather holds for about two weeks they will be able to complete this year's harvest in a timely way.