Farmers happy with this year’s harvest

Despite cool, wet conditions earlier this summer, most of the district’s farmers are happy with this year’s harvest.
“If you were fortunate enough to get it in late May, early June, you were fortunate,” said Bernie Zimmerman, who has few complaints about his grain crops.
“June wasn’t very good but at least you were able to stay ahead of the wet weather.
“For me, the yields were fairly well. It was just a matter of being patient and being ready to go when the weather was good,” Zimmerman remarked.
For Larry Lamb, owner of Purity Seeds in Emo, this year was one of the best for grain harvests.
“Quantity’s been excellent, quality’s been excellent . . . it’s been a bit of challenge to get the work done but it’s been good,” said Lamb, who grows a wide variety of seeds at his farm.
Lamb agreed it’s been difficult to work through alternating periods of heavy humidity, cool temperatures, and warm weather.
“It’s been kind of a tricky year,” he said. “Yield-wise, it was good. I know for a few farmers it was one of the best years in terms of volume.”
Pastures also fared well, said Barwick cattle farmer Amos Brielmann.
“This year and last year were good grass seasons. We had good moisture and it was cool enough,” said Brielmann, who tries to get maximum nutrition from his pastures during the summer as well as grow hay for the winter months.
As with the grain, it was a good year for hay as long as the timing was right, Brielmann said.
“In the beginning we had some trouble. It’s a late season–the first crop was four weeks later than last year but the growing season was a good one,” he noted.
At the Emo Research Station, some of the test crops rebounded over the past few weeks after a shaky start to the growing season.
“I think the grain yields are fairly good,” said station manager Kim Jo Bliss. “If you had your grains in early, you probably did all right.”
The station in Emo also has played a crucial role this year as others across the rest of the province suffered from devastating hailstorms or unusual weather conditions.
“Most of Ontario had a way worse year. They’d already had two killing frosts two weeks ago,” said Bliss.
Some of the more exotic crops at the station this year have yet to be tested but appear to be doing fairly well.
While little more than a month ago the hemp crops appeared to be stunted, they have since improved and should produce a satisfactory yield of seeds and fibre.
And the hybrid poplars, which are in very early stages of testing, have taken off after being defoliated by the army worm invasion this past spring.
The trees–a fast-growing variety which could be ready for harvest within 10 years–made an impressive recovery. Planted as rootless clippings last year, some already have grown three-four feet high.
“We’ll go out and measure the diameter and they’ve more than doubled,” said Bliss. “Some are four times the [original] size.”
Meanwhile, it would have been a great year for vegetables at Lowey’s greenhouse weather-wise but a herd of deer and a bear have affected the harvests.
“We had a fair crop but we had animal problems, we lost 50 percent to deer,” said Jim Lowey. “And we normally get five bags of corn. I got two and the bear got three.
“Otherwise it came out as a good year,” he noted.