By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—2023 has been a challenging year for local farmers so far.
The Press spoke with three local agronomists for their insight on how our local agricultural community has been handling long stretches of dry periods and a hard-packed ground.
Jamie Heaslip, Sales Agronomist at Clark’s Agri-Service, said that that the lack of frost and hard rains over the winter, followed by a long dry period, made the ground hard and difficult both for planting equipment to penetrate and for seeds to emerge.
Jarvis-based Independent Agronomist Susan Gowan, CCA noted the variable weather with rain and above seasonal temperatures in March and April followed by a cool spell. She added, “Once we hit May the water tap seemed to turn off for good…. Personally, 2023 was the first spring I’ve seen ground get so hard, so dry, so fast, so early in the season. Planting depths … varied more than I have ever seen.”
Jacob Elgersma, Owner of Gralex Agronomy Inc., a Dunnville-based seed dealer, said initially things seemed promising as farmers started on their fields in a timely manner thanks to the dry conditions, but noted the rain on May 20 “together with the cold weather 2-3 days afterwards took a lot of the vigour out of the soybeans.”
Elgersma said he’s heard from several growers over the spring season who have damaged equipment while trying to break through the ground to plant.
Heaslip shared that while farmers typically follow no-till practices – planting straight into the ground to avoid erosion and increase soil health while getting “big savings in equipment, time, and fuel consumption” – this hard packed ground has led to more tillage to loosen the soil, “but that has left a very dry seed bed with not much moisture left to help the seed germinate and grow.”
He said other farmers employ a simpler tactic: waiting.
“Some growers elected to park their seeding equipment and wait for a rain and for soil conditions to improve as a rain will help soften the soil and inject more moisture for seeds to start growing,” he explained.
All three pinpointed a lack of adequate moisture needed to activate newly planted seeds as this spring’s biggest challenge.
“Seed can safely sit in dry soil for a long time but once it swells with water and germinates, we don’t want it drying out and dying,” explained Gowan. “The hardest part is always getting the crop out of the ground. Once it’s emerged, we can deal with almost anything.”
With recent rainy conditions, there is hope that some of these early concerns could turn around. Gowan said the rains will allow for re-assessment on currently planted seeds that were struggling in the dry weather. On the reverse, Heaslip also noted the need for rain to get residual chemicals into weed seeds to kill them before they emerge, when a second application of chemical would be required to kill them.
Heaslip added, “The other issue being non-uniform germination makes it difficult to make the recommendation on whether or not a field will need to be replanted because some seeds will be well on their way and growing while others are sitting in dry soil needing a rainfall of sufficient quantity to take off.”
Gowan said that while the rain is needed to soften up the ground, “Farmers are great at adapting to current situations,” listing moisture levels, planting depth, and seed to soil contact as items a farmer can review before deciding whether to replant a field.
She iterated how impressed she’s been with the positive approaches she’s seen from local farmers: “Every decision in farming is a calculated risk and we can only make decisions based on the best information at the time…. People are staying optimistic about what the summer can bring, and looking at the calendar we still have some good planting days ahead of us to be able to produce a great crop.”
On the current status of local crops, Elergsma noted that the weather has been a mixed bag for hay growers receiving “grass heavy hay mixes” that “significantly reduce yields … (but) quality has also been very high with the excellent drying weather.”
According to Gowan, slow growth and hard ground reduced emergence so much that a number of clay fields housing soybeans required replanting to thicken stands. Elgersma noted that corn is also down from the ideal 32-33,000 plants per acre to “27-28,000 due to crusting and poor emergence. This population often doesn’t warrant a replant if it is consistent enough throughout the field, but it does lower the yield potential going into the fall harvest.”
He added that many wheat acres are looking great despite the weather: “Having multiple crops in the rotation allows growers to split their risk between several crops. Since we were able to start planting early May, there is still time in June to replant fields. Typically replanting will happen until June 30.”
Heaslip concluded, “As negative as a lot of this has probably sounded, things aren’t all bad for local growers. For the most part corn is doing well. This past rain has improved everyone’s spirit (and the soybean crops’ chance of emergence) drastically…. Most crops went in way earlier than what would be considered normal, and this has given farmers a lot more time than usual to decide what the next step for their crop is if they are having difficulties.”
