Drought-like conditions bedevil local farmers

There’s a well-known song by Sonny and Cher called The Beat Goes On, but the song of Kawartha Lakes this summer would probably be The Heat Goes On.

Multiple heatwave warnings have been issued in the city this summer and for good reason. With temperatures reaching the high 30s and low 40s, it has been a scorching season. Now, local farmers are struggling to keep both their crops and animals alive and their farms financially viable.

David Phillips, senior meteorologist from Environment and Climate Change Canada, has little good news for Kawartha Lakes farmers, suggesting that weather modelling for the next six weeks is more of the same with a slight chance of a little more rain mid-September.

In a telephone interview with Kawartha Lakes Weekly, Phillips called the warm and dry weather in Ontario one of the big stories of the summer so far.

“June and July have been bone-dry in your area,” Phillips said. “Kawartha Lakes has only received 40 per cent of its regular precipitation. The last six weeks have been on average two to two and a half degrees warmer than normal.”

Phillips said that Kawartha Lakes has had 16 days with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius in June and July. In a regular summer, including August, the city usually only gets six days where the temperature climbs to that height.

“Farmers right now are living off the water they were able to bank in March, April and May when it was unusually wet,” Phillips said. “Farmers coasted through June on spring rains, but crop stress has now set in in late July.”

Dunsford beef and crop farmer Barry Baxter said that his hay started off strong this year but “the later cut burnt up, so the value and the colour is less.” For some of the early fields, there have been second cuts but they’re yielding very little. Unless there’s some rainfall, hay is likely done for the season.

Baxter said even if rain were to fall today “it would not bring the yields that are needed to pay the bills.” Crops need a good balance of water, heat, and sunshine. As the summer season goes on, daylight gets less and less with crops being unable to grow to their full potential.

“Most of the crops out there now have gone into survival mode and are taking energy needed for yield and are putting it into staying alive.”

Wheat has been coming out better than expected but “corn and beans are variable depending on plant date and soil type.” This time last year Baxter’s corn stalks reached over 14 feet, this year some have barely made it to six.

“The long-term impact of this will be felt for at least a year,” Baxter said. The lingering effects of March’s ice storm, combined with heavy rainfall in May, left fields flooded and pushed planting back by two weeks.

For farmers like Charley Moynes, these drought-like conditions are the reality that she and her family have been battling on their Kawartha Lakes hobby farm this summer.

“Our small little farm is struggling in this heat,” Moynes wrote in a widely shared social media post. “My horses have pretty much eaten double of what they typically would have for the summer because my pasture fields won’t grow, and they are blasting through my hay. Their feet are in terrible condition because the ground is like concrete and the bugs are so bad they stomp so much. We bathe them every day to cool them out. They have shaded, fanned and bedded up run-ins and still my older gals are struggling.”

Moynes said on social media that the day she made her post three of her meat birds had died from the heat.

“What a terrible way to go,” Moynes wrote. “No farmer wants their animals to suffer. Plus, that is three meals for us or money out of our pocket in lost sales.”

Moynes is particularly concerned about her sheep, so much so that they have been moved out of their ventilated barn into the bush where there is at least some shade.

“I feel like across the board all I do is dump and scrub water all day long, or the kids do, so everyone has cool fresh water. I am hearing constantly from friends and family that their wells simply can’t keep up.”

Phillips said that typically in June and July there are 22 days of rain in Kawartha Lakes instead of the 12 the area has received so far.

The meteorologist said that Central Ontario is one of the worst areas to be hit by these drought-like conditions in all of Canada. “The area has received only a thimbleful of rain, barely enough to keep the dust down. The area desperately needs two to three days of soft percolating rain that will soak into the soil. Right now, the ground is like concrete and the water we do get sits on the surface and evaporates before it has a chance to soak in.”

Baxter, the Dunsford farmer, warns that livestock farmers will face even steeper costs this winter. With crop yields down, the usual surplus reserved for winter feed has all but vanished. Once the summer season ends, farmers will be left bearing the financial burden of a dry and unforgiving harvest.

Mark Torrey, a Woodville area farmer, said it’s hard to believe they have not “had a rain of any significance in two months.”

“This is a very critical time in the growth cycle for corn and soybeans. When the corn plant is stressed, pollination does not occur as it should, and the cob will abort kernels and reduce yield.” Livestock farmers are very concerned about having enough grass and water for the cattle on pastures. They do not want to be dipping into their winter feed supply five months before winter begins.

However, Phillips said the forecast doesn’t look promising in that regard.

“The rest of August will also be warm and dry, overall. “If there is a change it will be marginal. This warm weather is expected to move (right) into September. There is a chance of a little more precipitation by mid-September.”