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\u201cAt this point, it (could be) six figures of loss. And that all happens in days,\u201d Cassandra Lepp, a Rivers-area wheat and canola farmer, said. \u201cWe have good crops out there, and they are disappearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canola crops can\u2019t be cut due to moisture levels, Lepp said. She is waiting for dryer conditions before harvesting, but the crop is dwindling while time passes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s profit dropping on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the case of wheat, the family was forced to harvest while the wheat carried \u201csevere high risk\u201d of spoilage due to high moisture level, she said.<\/p>\n
Wheat in the field had been sprouting \u2014 degrading in quality \u2014 and the farmers chose to bring it in rather than risk having it continue sprouting and take on more rain.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u201cYou get hit with huge discounts,\u201d Lepp said. \u201cWe never had sprouted grain before. This has never happened in 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re racing the clock at three miles an hour with combines, so you can only go as fast as you can go.\u201d<\/p>\n The Manitoba government\u2019s rain watch tool showed that as of Wednesday, Souris had recorded the wettest September in the region with 109.6 mm. Rivers received 50 mm, Wawanesa got 80 mm, Boissevain had 57.1 mm, Minto received 74.8 mm and Virden got 70.8 mm.<\/p>\n Jake Ayre, a Minto farmer and vice-president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, was forced to cancel Wednesday\u2019s harvest plans thanks to showers.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as a whole in Westman, it\u2019s been a challenging year that begins to bring more problems,\u201d Ayre said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u201cWe have lost anywhere from 15 to 30 per cent of fields just due to drown out,\u201d he said while standing beneath a tin roof as rain pattered on it.<\/p>\n Ayre said farmers are dealing with a bottleneck issue; they\u2019ve fallen behind schedule due to rain, and needing to bring several different crops off the field at the same time. He said he is about 30 per cent behind schedule.<\/p>\n He has received calls from neighbours who are in similar positions, asking for help to harvest. Delays also create a lack of cash flow from delivering crops for sale, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at the field \u2014 that\u2019s your bank account. That\u2019s your revenue, and you slowly watch it fall away.\u201d<\/p>\n Corn, soybeans and edible beans look good this year, and are expected to be the least impacted by the rain, Ayre said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Darren Chapman, a semi-retired farmer south of Virden, said the rain is taking a toll in his area.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outlook and quality of the product is dropping, and cost of harvesting is is going up, so your margin is getting smaller,\u201d Chapman said Wednesday. <\/p>\n Chapman runs a combine at his family\u2019s generational farm, now taken up by his younger brother. On rainy days, he said, they prepare machinery so work can be done when the weather clears.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going over the combines and checking for belts that got cracks and replacing them. Just trying to reduce your risk of breakdowns when the weather is good,\u201d he said. \u201cSo hopefully, you got as much stuff that you\u2019re aware of corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n Keith Pearn, whose family farm is located northeast of Virden, said the lack of mobility on the farm is his biggest concern and noted his combine got stuck in a field this month following a period of rain. The machine eventually had to be towed.<\/p>\n
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