Lack of rain in eastern Ontario affecting farmers’ crops

As drought conditions persist in eastern Ontario, people on wells are asked to limit their water use and crops are drying out. CTV’s Camille Wilson reports.

Ottawa is seeing drought conditions across the area as there hasn’t been significant rainfall since July 24.

The lower-than-normal rainfall and the hot temperatures this summer have impacted farmers’ fields, increasing the struggle to water crops. The soil is cracked; the grass is crisp.

“After the early part of July, it stopped raining, and it hasn’t rained since. The corn crops especially are burned up. They’re dry. The cobs are only half their size,” says farmer Robert Walsh. “Ss far as the corn crop goes, it’s very dry and it’s probably too late to do any good now.”

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Walsh says a great percentage of farming depends on the weather and it’s been rough this year and the lack of rain affects not only his crops, but his animals as well.

“We have cattle as well, so the pastures are burned up. I’m feeding hay to cows, and they’ve got calves with them, so this is the time they have to eat. You feed them now and hope you have enough to get you through the winter,” says Walsh.

Walsh says the cattle usually drink out of the pond but because of the little rain, he has to fill a tub up every morning with water.

Losing crops to drought means less income.

“If you’re planting a corn crop, it probably cost you $600 to grow an acre of corn. At today’s price of $200 a ton, that means you have to grow a three-ton just to get your expenses back. You need more than just your expenses back. You don’t do it for fun; you do it to make money.”

Joe Welten grows corn, wheat, and soybeans. He says most of the plants are in survival mode and have dried up and they probably won’t produce much.

“Haven’t gotten much precipitation in the last six weeks. It started to get dry at the end of June. We’ve been missing every storm. We had a couple of small drops, but nothing major and that’s starting to affect it. It’s probably too late now for to make any big difference,” he says.

The City of Ottawa says due to the extreme dry conditions, three local conservation authorities have issued low water advisories. Users of private wells are encouraged to be prudent with their water use and avoid all unnecessary watering activities, including lawn watering.

On Tuesday, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) issued a “Level 3 – Severe” low water advisory for the Rideau River watershed, warning of “significant dry conditions.”

“A Level 3 condition simply indicates that rainfall over the last 30 or 90 days is at or below 40 per cent of what we would consider normal for this time of year,” says the RVCA in a statement.

Environment Canada says there’s rain in the forecast for the Ottawa area next week.

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“Any kind of rain helps. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a sprinkle. It keeps the dust down, but you’re going to need a monsoon to correct the situation. You don’t have to be a climatologist to know it’s been dry,” says Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips.

Phillips says even though the trees look good, they are still suffering and can’t get any water to the root zone.

“May was dry. May, June, July, August. We add up all the precipitation and compare it to what you normally would get. You’ve had about 188 millimetres of rain. You typically would get 320. So, you’re about 58% of what you normally would get,” says Phillips.

Environment Canada says we are expected to see some rain from Sunday through Tuesday.