‘Crop insurance will be very busy this year,’ farmer says of dry conditions

A Leader-area farmer is feeling pessimistic about the harvest as hot and dry conditions have devastated many of his crops.

Brent Watts grows wheat and lentils on part of his farm. He has suffered extensive crop damage.

“There won’t be anything to cut, or very little. There’s big spots burnt out of it. And the heads are coming out. It’s just above your ankles and (there’s) no rain in the forecast,” Watts said.

“It’s been dry for so long and now the last week has pretty well finished it.”

He says it would take a “significant rainfall” to salvage those crops but doubts that will happen.

Watts will be filing a claim for crop insurance and predicts others will do the same.

“Crop insurance will be very busy this year, that’s my prediction,” he said. “If you don’t have crop insurance, I hope that you have some other sort of income stability tool, as what’s going to come off in harvest in this area is going to be pretty minimal.”

Farmers are seeing parched conditions in most areas of the province. According to the latest crop report, 42 per cent of cropland topsoil moisture was rated “short,” while another 27 per cent was “very short.”

Topsoil moisture for the majority of hay and pasture land was also “short” or “very short.”

In the Southwest Crop Division, cereals rated “poor” include 43 per cent of spring wheat, 26 per cent of fall rye, 26 per cent of durum, 19 per cent of oats, 37 per cent of barley and 28 per cent of canaryseed.

For oilseeds and pulses in that region, crops rated “poor” include 76 per cent of flax, 45 per cent of canola, 31 per cent of mustard, 17 per cent of soybeans, 34 per cent of peas, 31 per cent of lentils and 38 per cent of chickpeas.

Primarily a producer of cattle feed, Watts is now turning most of his attention to his irrigated fields, where he grows wheat and triticale. However, he is expecting losses there as well.

“You could only get so much water on. I do suspect that in the end, we’ll see some yield loss just because of the extreme heat,” Watts said.

Watts has experienced a drought for the last few years but it’s been an entire generation since he’s seen a year like this one.

“I compare it to (1988 and 1990). Those years, maybe (they were) not quite so extreme but they were hot, dry years,” he said.

“We didn’t even have the start that we had this year. So we are thankful that we were able to grow a little bit of grass in our pastures whereas in ’88 and 1990, we went into the spring really dry.”