Farmers across New Brunswick are reeling after a hot, dry summer all but roasted their crops, and have been left wondering what future summers will bring.
Don Bostwick’s family has been farming on his Kingston Peninsula apple farm for seven generations, dating back to the 1700s.
“If I could bring any of them back, they would tell you that they’ve never seen a drought like this. We just can’t get rain,” Bostwick said.
This summer’s dry conditions have not been easy on the apple farm — Bostwick says the trees are stressed, and with a chuckle, admits he is too.
Some of his apple varieties that ripen earlier in the season are larger from the early spring rains, but others are smaller and dropping earlier off the trees, some of which are dotted with crispy and dried-up leaves.
This is the time of year when trees will store up energy for the following year, he added, so next year’s crops might also take a hit from the poor weather this summer.
“There’s definitely a worry to it, but at the same time, there’s not a lot we can do about it,” Bostwick said.
The farm just opened to customers looking to pick their own apples last weekend. But the success of the rest of the season depends on how much more rain comes, if any.
“That’s an ‘if,’ and I don’t look like working on ‘ifs,'” he said.
“You gotta roll with the punches, I guess, or I wouldn’t be a farmer. I would have given this up years ago, or my ancestors would have.”
Apples aren’t the only produce item to take a hit. Across the province in Baie de Bouctouche, fourth-generation farmer Christian Michaud doesn’t like the looks of his corn haul this year.
“The corn itself, quality-wise, was good, it’s just the yield was not great just because of the lack of water. The cobs were smaller than I would have liked,” he said, noting at his crop was only about 60 per cent of usual.
“We were leaving quite a few behind [on the stalks] because they were just too small.”
The farm plants corn eight times a year, so Michaud said he’s not completely out, but doesn’t have the yield he usually harvests this time of year.
His other crops of beans and carrots are also down. The poor season means he and other farmers have to put more thought into rotating crops and being sustainable.
“When you get the extreme weather events like this year, you seem to notice that it makes you just a bit more resilient to make it through,” Michaud said.
“But resiliency only brings you so far. We still still need water at some point.”
At Lonsview Farms near Sussex, farmer Eric Walker said he’s lost about a third of his silage crop to feed his cows.
“All of the grasses … have died off and some of the clovers … have lasted, but the quality isn’t there,” he said.
He estimates the losses add up to about $75,000.
The dry weather means that Walker will have to deplete his remaining inventory from last year and will have to outsource some of the silage he needs to fill his silos. Much of the country has also experienced dry conditions this summer, so he and other farmers might look to farms in the U.S. to purchase the silage they need.
“Fingers crossed that our lovely neighbours south of the border will have a wonderful crop and that market will be … reasonably priced to lessen the load,” Walker said.
He said the effects of climate change have been apparent this year especially, and harvest time for farmers is changing.
“Nothing is done by the playbook anymore.”
Brett Reidpath of Blue Acres Development, a blueberry farm near Sainte-Marie-de-Kent, says there’s no other way to describe the season but terribly.
“Between the lack of rain and the extreme heat it would appear to be probably one of the worst years we’ve had in quite a while, if not ever,” Reidpath said.
In a normal year he’d be wrapping up the season now, but the farm finished harvesting blueberries weeks ago.
“They didn’t even really look like blueberries. They pretty much dried on the vine, a lot of them.”
In addition to the lacklustre crop, prices for blueberries are down too, he said.
“When you’re not getting the great price for your fruit either, it makes it hard to deal with even the occasional rough times.”
Due to the wild nature of how blueberries grow, Reidpath said there’s not a whole lot farmers can do to fight back against conditions like this.
“The entire future of the industry is a little concerning that way,” he said.
