N.S. farmers grappling with meager pumpkin, apple harvest

Many Nova Scotian farmers are dealing with a poor harvest this season.

Andrew Johnson should be getting his Nova Scotia pumpkin patch ready for fall pickers; instead, he’s plowing them under.

“We only got two bins, normally 20-to-30 bins of pumpkins out of here so it’s been a devastating summer,” says Johnson, who is a fifth-generation farmer. “The pumpkins in June were looking normal. They had a nice five-leaf stage and they were starting to get their blossoms going, and then the middle of June, it just stopped raining and it just hasn’t had any significant rain since”

Shrivelled, brittle leaves and undersized gourds are the result.

“We’ve suffered a terrible drought this year. These plants have been very stressed, this should be green and lush and full of pumpkins,” Johnson says.

It’s just as bad in Brian Newcombe’s soybean field.

Soybeans provide the main source of protein for his chickens and livestock. Newcombe figures he’ll be lucky to get half of what he needs.

“I’m hoping that we’ve got enough here to pay for the diesel to run the combine and the expenses, but there is some beans here so we’re going to come in and we’re going to harvest them and get what we can get,” he says. “It means we’re going to have to go out and purchase feed for the year because we’re not going to have enough to feed everything.”

No rain means no grass for grazing for Leonard Rand’s cattle. After a good first cut in early summer, he was optimistic about his winter hay supply, but with dry ground, the one cut is all he got.

“Normally, we start putting out a little bit of hay usually at the end of September. This year we started the third week of July,” he says.

At Jay Johnson’s orchard, the Gravenstein apples are too heavy for the branches and have fallen to the ground.

“That has to do with the dry weather,” she says. “The slightest breeze and those apples are falling off the tree.”

From the polar vortex to floods and drought, it’s been a tough few years on Nova Scotia farms but farmers will regroup and be back at it next year, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page